Six-Month-Old Conjoined Twin Girls Separated, Born with Shared Liver and Pericardium

A successful surgery separate two six-month-old formerly conjoined twin girls. They are now recovering at a Virginia hospital, following the pioneering two-stage operation that separated them.

A'zhari and A'zhiah Jones, who are currently being monitored at the Children's Hospital of Richmond, were born connected at the chest with a shared a liver and pericardium - the fluid-filled sac around the heart and major blood vessels.

They underwent the first phase of their separation surgery in October, but due to ill-health the final part of the complex procedure was postponed until this Monday. 

The procedure is reported to have taken 14-hours, but the pair made a full recovery, according to doctors, and said there shouldn't be any need for future intervention or long-term medication.

"We're very optimistic that the twins will have a full and complete recovery...I see the girls living fully happy lives as individuals," Dr. David Lanning said in a statement Tuesday.

The girls were born on October 10, 2012, through a planned cesarean section to Nachell Jones and Carlos Lawrence, of Franklin, Virginia. They weighed a combined 10 pounds.

Jones was 12 weeks pregnant when she learned she was expecting twins and a week later scans revealed that the fetuses were conjoined.