Conjoined twins separated in marathon operation

SALT LAKE CITY – Doctors have successfully separated 4-year-old twin sisters born fused at the midsection, with just one kidney and one set of legs, and were continuing with reconstruction surgery.

The parents broke into tears when doctors announced that the separation had been completed at 10:50 p.m., and, at 11 p.m., one – Kendra Herrin – was moved to a separate operating room.

“It’s just a new beginning – and the end of a really good one,” father Jake Herrin said.

Reconstruction was expected to take 41/2 more hours.

Doctors at Primary Children’s Hospital said it was the first known surgical attempt to separate twins with a shared kidney.

Kendra and Maliyah Herrin were rolled into the operating room at 7:15 a.m. after a tearful goodbye from their parents.

“It was very emotional,” said their father. “They were more brave than us.”

The operation was expected to last 12 to 24 hours, during which surgeons planned to give each girl one leg and Kendra the kidney. Maliyah will be put on dialysis for three to six months until she is strong enough for a transplant of a kidney from her mother, Erin Herrin. A kidney transplant would have been harder before age 4, and doctors advised waiting.

Surgeons also divided the girls’ single liver and separated their intestines.

The twins were stable through the first 12 hours of the operation, the doctors said earlier.

“Going great, no problems whatsoever,” said Dr. Rebecka Meyers, the hospital’s chief of pediatric surgery. She said the procedures surgeons performed on the twins are commonly done in many patients – just not those who are attached to each other.

“What’s unusual is doing them all in one single surgery, in two separate girls, followed by the physical separation of the children,” hospital spokeswoman Bonnie Midget said.

The surgery included successfully separating the intestines, divided and reconstructing the twins’ two bladders.

Surrounded by family and close friends, the girls’ parents were being updated hourly by the surgical team’s lead nurse and tried to stay upbeat.

“We know going into this surgery that angels are watching over our children. We feel it,” Erin Herrin said.

Jake Herrin said they were grateful for messages posted on the North Salt Lake family’s Web site from well-wishers around the world.

The blue-eyed, sandy-haired girls were born locked in an embrace, practically face to face. Conjoined twins occur about once in every 50,000 to 100,000 births. Only about 20 percent survive to become viable candidates for separation.

Monday’s medical team included six surgeons, two anesthesiologists, one radiologist, two urologists and 25 to 30 support staff.