Conjoined Twins Erika And Eva separated and stable after 17 hours long marathon surgery

The famous California conjoined twins Erika and Eva were separated from each other after a 17-hour long marathon separation surgery at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford. A team of 50, comprising of expert surgeons, nurses and operating room staff under lead surgeon Dr. Gary Hartman successfully completed the surgery.

After the surgery, Hartman said, "The twins did very well, I'm very pleased; this is as good as we could have asked for." The surgery was a huge success and both Erika and Eva are stable. They are presently kept inside pediatric intensive care unit under sedation. Doctors say that they will be kept there for two weeks during which they will recover, reported The Fresno Bee.

Aida, mother of the girls, was ecstatic and said, "They look amazing. They're amazing. They have their hair done, and they're resting,"

She said, it was surreal to see her daughters in two separate beds and "It's kind of like - 'Where's your other half?' It's going to take a little getting used to."

Arturo, father of the girls, said he is curious to see how the girls are going to react after they wake up. "What are they going to do? How are they going to react?" he said.

The family shifted to live in Palo Alto apartment so that Erika and Eva will have closer access to Lucile Packard hospital. They hosted fundraisers to raise money for medical expenses and for the surgery.

Erika and Eva were born conjoined in 2014. They were fused from the chest down, with one bladder and liver and a third leg. After separation, they both have one leg, while the third leg was used to make skin grafts to cover up the surgical wounds. They will be given prosthetic legs once they recover completely, reported Business Wire.

The surgery is now one of the few hundred successful surgeries that have been performed all over the world to separate conjoined twins.