A team of 80 doctors and nurses at a Los Angeles hospital have separated conjoined infant girls.
Surgeons cut the last piece of tissue and bone connecting 10-month-old Regina and Renata Salinas Fierros late Wednesday evening, about 12 hours after the marathon procedure began. Hospital officials say the first phase of the surgery went "impeccably."
The girls were born facing each other, joined from their lower chest to the pelvis. They shared a liver, intestine and reproductive organs.
They are now undergoing reconstructive surgery on their chests and pelvic areas.
Doctors say they are confident both girls will survive the surgery. The lead surgeon says without the procedure, their physical and psychological development would have been compromised.
Regina and Renata were born in a Los Angeles hospital last August. Their parents are natives of Mexico. The parents were visiting the U.S. on a tourist visa when they discovered the girls were conjoined.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP.
