Dr. Max Gomez: Once-Conjoined Twins Leave Dallas Hospital After 9 Month Stay
DALLAS, Texas (CBSNewYork) -- They were born joined together, but now they are separate.
For the first time in their young lives a pair of 9-month-old twins who had been conjoined have left a Dallas hospital.
As CBS 2's Dr. Max Gomez explained, conjoined twins occur when an early stage embryo splits to form twins but comes back together and partially fuses the embryos at a wide variety of body points.
After spending their entire lives in the intensive care unit Emmett and Owen Ezell finally left the hospital and headed to a nearby rehabilitation center.
"They are doing so well and look at how beautiful they are," the boys' mother Jenni said.
The boys had been connected from the belly button to the breast bone. At one-month-old they were surgically separated during a 9 hour procedure at Medical City Children's Hospital.
"They had to separate a portion of the liver. They had to separate a common area of upper intestine that was joined together," Dr. Clair Schwendeman explained.
After several additional surgeries, the boys are now able to sit up and play.
"We've received encouragement from all over the world and it's phenomenal. It's uplifted us more than just about anything," the boys' father Dave Ezell said.
While at rehab the Ezells will learn how to manage the boys' medical issues on their own, which includes caring for feeding and breathing tubes.
Jenni said that the best part about the twins' recovery has been getting to hold them.
"They have very specific ways they like to be held and I know how they like to be held now and it's such a good feeling. And I can comfort them. It's so nice being able to do that," she said.
Doctors said that the twins have a good prognosis but that the boys will need more surgeries on their stomachs to make sure the skin and muscles on their bellies grows properly.
Doctors do not expect the boys to have any other developmental problems.
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