Infant Twins see each other for the first time. TOUCHING STORY

Face To Face For The First Time, Conjoined Twins Separated By Life Saving Surgery (Photos)

• Posted by Natasha on September 15, 2011 at 2:05pm
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It's you! The moment Jacob and Joshua see each other for the first time at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, where they were born

They were tiny newborn twins, delivered by frantic doctors in an emergency caesarean in January, six weeks before they were due. 
And born conjoined at the base of their spines, their chances of survival were made even smaller.
In what is being hailed as a medical miracle, little Joshua and Jacob Spates have survived being separated after a gruelling 13 hours in surgery.
And as this heart-warming picture shows, the boys - who had never been able to see each other - have now been introduced face to face.



The eight-month-old twins from Memphis, Tennessee, are continuing to recover under the watchful eyes of doctors but they have already overcome what is likely to be the biggest obstacle they will ever face.
The twins were joined at the rear of the pelvis and gastrointestinal tract and had to be separated because of the severity of Jacob's heart condition.
The boys' mother, Adrienne, said the boys are doing well following their operation, on August 29.

Gorgeous: The boys now have the chance to lead full, independent lives when they grow up

Overjoyed: The boys' mother Adrienne celebrates after the successful operation

Loving: Before the surgery the boys had never been able to look each other in the face

Happy: Baby Joshua is being prepared to go home, while Jacob faces more operations

However the twin boys are recovering at different rates.
Jacob remains in intensive care and needs a few more operations, while Joshua is already out of the unit and is being prepared to go home.

Dr Max Langham, one of the surgeons at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, said: 'Joshua's doing great, and hopefully he'll be up and going and have a pretty normal lifespan.

Recovery: Jacob can now be treated for his heart condition, which would have killed them both

Joined: This MRI scan provided by the hospital shows just how the pair were fused together

Fused: A 3D reconstruction shows how the boys' vertebrae were joined at the base

He told TODAY that while Jacob has more serious heart problems 'our cardiology team has very high hopes his treatment… will be successful'.
'If they had not been separated, sometime in the next year or two, they probably would have passed,' Dr Langham said.



Just two dozen conjoined twins have ever been successfully separated anywhere in the world.
The condition is extremely rare, only about one in every 200,000 live births is a set of conjoined twins and about 15 per cent of these are joined in a similar way to Joshua and Jacob.
Fewer than a third of conjoined twins survive more than one day after birth.

Battling: A team of surgeons at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis worked for 13 hours to separate the babies and keep them alive

Relief: Joshua and Jocob's mother Adrienne was overwhelmed that all went to plan at hospital

Success story: The separation was carried out at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee

Joshua and Jacob are one of only six such cases in Memphis history.

Doctors at the hospital said practice was the key to separating the twins successfully. This had included the anaesthesia team sewing together two Cabbage Patch dolls to practise flipping them without tangling the various lines that would be attached during surgery.