AN ASTOUNDING video shows a 'marathon' 24-hour operation to separate conjoined twin girls born fused together at the skull. Abigail and Micaela Bachinskiy were just nine months old when they underwent the painstaking procedure that needed more than 30 medics to carry out. Connected at the head from the moment they were born, the little girls were fully separated during a 24-hour long surgery on October 24, 2020, and were able to look at each other for the first time.
Their care team spent countless hours planning out the logistics of the "marathon" procedure, mapping out nerves and blood vessels, practising with conjoined manikin dolls and rehearsing in the operating room custom-built for the procedure. Thirty surgeons, nurses, anaesthesiologists and other key surgical staff crowded in the operating room to help separate Abigail and Micaela, while their parents waited anxiously outside. "This is the best present of my life, it's very exciting, it's a huge blessing," mum Liliya Miroshnik said.
The twins' mum Liliya first learnt that she was pregnant with conjoined twins when she was 11 weeks along. Initially told she would have to terminate her pregnancy, her doctor referred her to the UC Davis Fetal Care and Treatment Center , who cared for Liliya and the twins for that point on. Abigail and Micaela were born in December 2019, and spent seven weeks in the noenatal intensive care unit (NICU) before going home.
They were born connected at the head, a condition called craniopagu.
