Twins AmieLynn and JamieLynn Finley were born in October conjoined in the abdomen. They shared a liver.
On January 23, 2023, the twins underwent a rare and potentially dangerous surgery to be separated at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. Happily, the surgery was successful.
Parents James Finley and Amanda Arciniega first discovered the twins' condition at their 10-week ultrasound. In an interview with CBS Mornings, Finley recalled looking at the ultrasound and being told that what he saw was his baby’s head, but then he pointed out a similar-looking mass on the screen.
“If that’s the baby’s head what’s that?” he asked.
The ultrasound tech replied, “That’s the other baby’s head.”
It was a shock to learn about the twins' condition. “On the ride home, we were quiet, and it was kind of sad,” Arciniega recalled. She and Finley were scared and did not know what to expect next.
Medical professionals themselves did not fully know what the next steps would be, either. Conjoined twins are extremely rare, occurring around one in every 200,000 live births. AmieLynn and JamieLynn's case was especially complicated because they were conjoined from the lower breastbone to the belly button and shared the same liver.
Ben Gbulie, MD, a plastic surgeon at Cook, broke down why this procedure was so risky. “There is no medical book you’re going to open and it says, ‘Step one: conjoined twins separation.’ That does not exist because of the rarity of this,” he said.
It took a medical team of 25 people to complete the 11-hour surgery. Six surgeons were led by José Iglesias, MD. He said that the surgery was a prime example of the power of the human spirit and the benefits of collaboration.
Iglesias believes there is no limit to what humanity can collectively accomplish. “This is a testament to the human spirit to continue to research to be able to have the technology to do incredible and complex things,” he said.
The twins' surgery was successful. Iglesias had positive things to say about their recovery and the bright future ahead of them.
“I’m very hopeful that they’re going to have a good recovery and lead healthy lives in the future,” he said.
The twins will still need time to recover, but the difficult surgery aspect is now behind them. “They’re going to have a bit of a ramp up from the recovery, but I think they’re going to be able to get there eventually, and very close to normal if not completely normal,” Iglesias concluded.
