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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A day after the 26-hour surgery that separated their 4-year-old conjoined daughters, Jake and Erin Herrin said they were overwhelmed by their reunion with Kendra and Maliyah.
"It was like seeing them born again. They were in brand new bodies," Jake Herrin said. "It was really an amazing experience."
But they were also a bit confused. Since birth Kendra has been the twin on the left; Maliyah on the right.
But now, cradled in sand-filled hospital beds in the pediatric intensive care unit at Primary Children's Medical Center, the girls are reversed.
"That was a little shocking," Erin Herrin said during news conference at the hospital on Wednesday.
Doctors say the twins are in critical condition, as expected after major surgery, but that their vital signs have remained stable and show no early signs of dangerous post-surgery infections.
"They are doing extremely well," said Dr. Rebecka Meyers, the hospital's chief of pediatric surgery who coordinated the separation that began Monday morning and concluded Tuesday.
Kendra and Maliyah were joined at the mid-torso, with multiple shared organs and just two legs. During the separation, doctors divided the twins' shared liver, bladders and a portion of their large intestines and split and reconstructed their single pelvis.
Each girl kept one leg and Kendra got their shared kidney that was working for both girls. Maliyah was to begin continuous kidney dialysis in preparation for a transplant in three to six months. Her mother will supply the donor kidney.
The Herrin twins are thought to be the first conjoined twins with a shared kidney to undergo successful separation surgery.
Conjoined twins occur about once in every 50,000 to 100,000 births. Only about 20 percent survive to become viable candidates for separation.
In most instances, conjoined twins undergo separation surgery between ages 6 and 12 months, but the Herrins' shared kidney forced a delay.
Doctors will now watch for certain medical benchmarks in each girl to determine when to wean them off heavy pain medications and machines assisting their breathing. At a minimum, the girls were expected to remain in intensive care for a week, followed by a month in the hospital before doctors consider sending them home.
Doctors anticipate that in addition to Maliyah's kidney transplant, it's likely the girls will need future reconstructive surgeries to help fit them for prosthetic legs.
"These girls will never be girls who did not undergo a major separation and have special battles and special needs," she said. "But they will be able to live very good, fulfilling lives."
During the night, nurses twisted the girls' sandy-blonde hair into french braids, fastening them with ribbons in the twins' favorite colors -- purple for Kendra and yellow for Maliyah.
"They looked so pretty this morning," said Meyers.
The heavy medications the girls are taking make it unlikely that they have a sense of what's happened to them, but Jake and Erin said nurses have told them the twins' vital signs continue to mirror each other, as if they are still conjoined.
Erin Herrin believes the girls are also responding to their voices. Maliyah gave her mother's hand a squeeze as Erin whispered in her ear. Kendra opened her eyes as if to send the message that "I'm here, we did it, we were brave," Erin said.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
