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| Formerly siamese Israeli twins look at one another after having undergone rare separation surgery at Soroka Medical Centre, Beersheba September 5, 2021. |
One-year-old twin Israeli girls who were born conjoined at the head, back to back, can make eye contact for the first time after undergoing rare separation surgery.
The more than 12-hour operation at the Soroka Medical Centre took months of preparation and involved dozens of experts from Israel and abroad, the hospital said on Sunday.
โThis was a rare and complex surgery that has been conducted only 20 times worldwide and now, for the first time, in Israel,โ said Mickey Gideon, Sorokaโs chief pediatric neurosurgeon.
Photos in Israeli media showed the twins โ whose names were not provided โ facing one another in a cot, their heads bandaged. The Soroka statement said the surgery involved cranial reconstruction and scalp grafts for both.
โThey are recovering nicely. They are breathing and eating on their own,โ Eldad Silberstein, the head of Sorokaโs plastic surgery department, told Israelโs Channel 12 news.
