These Conjoined Sisters Were Just Successfully Separated in a Rare Surgery

Ximena and Scarlett Hernandez-Torres are barely 11 months old, but the first year of their lives has been a scary one. The sisters were born conjoined, alongside a non-conjoined triplet sister, Catalina, and they just underwent a rare procedure to be separated. The chance of a triplet birth with conjoined twins is 1 in 50 million, CNN notes.

According to Fox 7 News, they were transferred to their Texas hospital hours after birth this past May, and a team of doctors has been working with them for months to get ready for separation surgery. They share a colon and bladders, which needed to be reconstructed.

Before their surgery, the twins were baptized and had a pastor perform the ceremony in the hospital.

The operation began Tuesday morning and lasted for about 15 hours, according to Action 10 News, though it only took a few hours of the surgery to separate the girls. It reportedly took nine surgeons and an overall team of 50 to 60 professionals to pull off the procedure. "I feel great. Being scared all day, all night, just thinking about surgery," their father, Raul Torres, told the station. "Couldn't ask for better doctors than them. Really, since beginning I knew they were going to take good care of my girls. Couldn't ask for better ones."

As of Wednesday afternoon, Ximena was going back into surgery because of problems with her kidney. Scarlett was still sleeping and doing well so far.