Abby and Erin Delaney were 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 at CHOP’s Garbose Family Special Delivery Unit, following careful monitoring by the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment. The twins were conjoined at the top of their heads, a rare condition known as craniopagus, making them the first set of twins with this condition to be separated at CHOP.

Despite being conjoined, the Delaney twins often exhibit different behaviors, with one crying while the other sleeps soundly. It’s a reminder that they are two unique individuals who cannot be easily distinguished or separated.

As a parent, it doesn’t matter what the issue with them or what they do or what they look like, you are going to love that  no matter what.  Kids are connected by the head, they can be connected in a couple of different ways. One is by if they’re connected at the front or the back; one is if they’re connected and they just share skin, which is really, really rare, we almost never see that.

But in this case, what they share is bone and then the coverings of the brain, the dura. So in these kids, it looks like they just share the skull and the coverings, but they also share this important vein that goes down the middle called the sagittal sinus, which is where about 20 percent of your cardiac output goes through.

Surgery to separate conjoined twins involves many steps. Over their first 10 months, the girls underwent a series of surgeries, including the placement of expanders to stretch their skin. It’s a very extensive team of people, this is the kind of thing that they get together beforehand and they practice so that the day of surgery, everybody has a very well-defined role; everybody knows what their role is. So it’s like choreographed dance moves.

So it’s multiple surgeries over several months. Really young babies are at their most regenerative the earlier on they are in life.

The separation of conjoined twins is a very complex surgery followed by a long and complicated recovery. Co-led by neurosuʀɢᴇᴏɴ Gregory Heuer, MD, Ph.D., and plastic surgeon Jesse Taylor, MD, a multidisciplinary team of approximately 30 members, including physicians, nurses and other medical staff from neurosurgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, and anesthesiology, participated in the separation surgery, which lasted about 11 hours.

It was a lengthy operation and lots of ups and downs, emotionally and physically both for their and for all the team members and for the girls themselves.

Formerly conjoined twins require urgent, specialist care after separation. As the separated ren recovered from surgery, their suʀɢᴇᴏɴs, nutritionists, developmental pediatricians, and other specialists monitored them closely to ensure that they were receiving the finest clinical care possible to help them flourish and grow. They also received intensive therapy from a team of speech, occupational and physical therapists. Over the next few years, the girls will require additional surgeries to replace missing bone in their skulls and to minimize scaring.

To say the least, the two months following surgery have been a rollercoaster. For what they’ve been through, they’re such cheerful, joyful little kids. They’ve never lived anywhere other than the Hospital and are still happy; they’re not tᴇʀʀɪfɪᴇᴅ of people. The girls have been doing well in their therapies and a slowly but surely still progressing. It’s just amazing to see that they’re so brave through all of this.

The girls’ journey is far from over. And it feels a lot of times like we’re about to go home, we’re almost done, but I have to keep reminding myself we still have a lot of obstacles to overcome. The biggest thing is right now they don’t have any skulls on the top of their heads.

When they first found out about them, they really didn’t know what to expect, but in coming here, it’s been a family. That really is a place where miracles happen.

Premature Twins Hοlding Hands Is the Mοst Tοuching Thing

It can be s.cary tο find οut that yοur 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦 may be bοrn ρ.rematurely, but οne Australian mοm is trying tο sρread a little hορe tο ρarents. Anthea Jacksοn-Rushfοrd οf Melbοurne, Australia, gave 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 tο twο ρreterm twins οn January 4.