Vatican City — Ervina and Prefina, 2-year old twin girls who were conjoined at the skull, which is a very rare condition, have been successfully separated after an operation at a hospital in Vatican City in Rome, Italy.
Last month, at least 30 doctors and nurses teamed up to perform the 18-hour operation that separated the girls, according to a statement from the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital. It is considered the first time that a conjoined twin in total posterior craniopagus was successfully separated in Italy.
The girl twins, who were from the Central African Republic, have been offered to be treated by Hospital President Mariella Enoc when she visited the country in 2018.
Together with their mother, Ermine, the twins arrived in Italy in September 2018. They were prepared for their first stage of treatment in May 2019 and the second stage in June 2019 before finally being separated on June 5 this year.
“It was an exciting moment, a fantastic, unrepeatable experience,” Carlo Marras, head of neurosurgery at the hospital, told CNN. “It was a very ambitious goal and we did everything to achieve it, with passion, optimism and joy.”
Moreover, the girls are expected to make a full recovery as their brains remain intact after the operation. Their motor and cognitive development should be normal as well.
Ermine was thankful for the team for successfully treating her daughters.
“Ervina and Prefina were born twice. If we had stayed in Africa I don’t know what fate they would have had,” she said. “My little girls can now grow up, study and become doctors to save other children.”
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