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Conjoined Twins Separated After 27-Hour Milestone Surgery

A 27-hour surgery supported by an army of 60 healthcare professionals. They say it takes a village to raise a child, but in this case, it was what it took to separate a pair of conjoined twins.

Well done to our Acibadem Healthcare team for being the first private hospital in Turkey to perform this challenging and highly complex surgery on 12 August after seven months of careful planning.

Cameroon sisters Elizabeth and Mary were born in July 2020 conjoined at their hips. They not only shared physical body parts, but also some parts of their body system such as the spinal cord, digestive tract and neurovascular structure.

The twins were brought to Acibadem Altunizade Hospital at nine months old where a multi-specialty team of 60 healthcare professionals from urology, radiology, physical medicine, intensive care unit, rehabilitation and cardiovascular surgery saw to their treatment, under the leadership of specialty professors at the hospital.

Leaving no stone unturned, they even partnered with the bio-design team from Acıbadem University to create a three-dimensional dummy of the twins so that they could plan the surgical details prior to the actual procedure.

No words could describe the joy of their parents. “Seeing them move freely in their beds in their own rooms, we felt like we were at the top of the world. We really appreciate all the doctors and healthcare professionals at Acibadem Healthcare Group. They took great care of us and gave us the confidence to go ahead with this challenging procedure.”