Two-year-old Siamese twins Eva and Erika Sandoval were born with one common body below the breast. They had the same type of fusion as the Russian Siamese twins Zita and Gita Rezakhanov. The girls shared a common digestive system, liver, bladder, and uterus. There were two heads, two arms and three legs for two.
On December 6, 2016, Erica and Eve underwent a disconnection operation at a clinic in Palo Alto, California, which took 18 hours. Each girl had one leg after her (the third was used as material for reconstruction).
As a larger child, Eve was left with the large intestine, colon and part of the small intestine. Erica has only another part of her small intestine left. Eve was a larger baby and strongly oppressed the weaker sister. Now the difference in weight between them is gradually equalizing. Eva now weighs 20 pounds and Erica is 19 pounds.
The liver and bladder were divided in half, but it remains unknown how the uterus was divided. The girls survived the operation well and two months later were discharged from the hospital to go for further rehabilitation at a special center closer to their home.
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Now they are already at home with their parents Aida and Arturo Sandoval and can already move independently in wheelchairs. Soon, according to doctors, they will be able to walk using crutches.
According to the girls' mother, now she has an almost ordinary life, like in any family with ordinary twins. The woman is especially happy for Erica, since in the conjoined state she was a weaker half and her sister Eva suppressed her in everything, "taking" nutrients.
Before surgery
It was the fear for Erica's life that prompted the doctors to carry out this dangerous and risky operation. In addition, the general condition of the two girls was also alarming. From the moment they were born, they began to have more and more problems in the genitourinary system and were brought to the hospital several times with infections and dehydration.
The girls' parents learned that they would have Siamese twins at an early stage of pregnancy. Aida was offered an abortion, but the woman refused it, being a very religious person. In this family, before the birth of the twins, three children already grew up, and the parents themselves were no longer young. Aida is 44 and Arturo is 49. The new pregnancy was unexpected and unplanned for them.
- I believe in God and I know, if it was decided so, then let it be so, - says the girls' mother, - They really strive for life, so we have to fight for them.
Aida was confident in the favorable outcome of the operation.
While girls cannot eat normally, they eat through a tube. It is also unclear if they will be able to use leg prostheses in the future, as they lack the pelvic bones to attach the prostheses to the body. The girls continue to be closely monitored, and in the future they will need more corrective surgeries.