The two-year-old Egyptian twins separated by US doctors yesterday are in a critical but stable condition today.
The twins were joined at the top of their heads but were successfully separated by doctors in Dallas. They face a long recovery after the surgery, which lasted 26 hours and took more than a year of planning.
Ahmed and Mohamed, who had an intricate connection of blood vessels but separate brains, were physically separated about 26 hours after they entered the operating room. Doctors then went to work covering the head wounds. The entire surgery took 34 hours.
Doctors said the surgery went according to plan, but concerns now include risk of infection and how the wounds will heal.
News of yesterday's successful separation of Ahmed and Mohamed Ibrahim overjoyed their parents, surgeons and carers.
"At one point when someone came up and said you have two boys, the father jumped to my neck and he hugged me and he fainted . . . he told me that he never dreamt of such a moment," said Dr Nasser Abdel Al, who was one of the twins' doctors in Egypt and with the family in Dallas.
"The mother on the other hand was crying like everybody else. She was there thanking everybody around and thanking her faith that brought her to this great place - Dallas, Texas."
AP