SALT LAKE CITY - After months of preparation and years of anticipation, surgeons at Primary Children's Medical Center have begun the 20-plus hour surgery to separate Kendra and Maliyah Herrin.
The four-year-old North Salt Lake girls are joined at the pelvis and share a liver and kidney.
Led by Pediatric Surgery Division Chief Rebecka Meyers, eight surgeons and dozens of operating staff, anesthesiologists, radiologists, and pharmacists are involved in the operation.
While most conjoined twins are separated in infancy, the Herrin girls' single kidney complicated matters. The twins' separation needed to wait until Maliyah was big enough to handle dialysis and improve her odds for a successful kidney transplant.
Timeline of the separation surgery of twins Kendra and Maliyah Herrin
August 7, 7 a.m. -- Four-year-old twins Kendra and Maliyah Herrin of North Salt Lake are taken into surgery and staff begins preparation work.
10:27 a.m. -- Separation surgery begins, starting with the large intestine.
1:00 p.m. -- Work begins to separate the girls' small intesine. Dr. Rebecka Meyers reports to family that surgery is going as planned.
2:06 p.m. -- Doctors finish separating the small intestine and bowels and begin work on the urinary tracts and bladders of both girls.
4:10 p.m. -- Doctors begin separation of the girls' bladder, after spending time examining their internal organs.
6:18 p.m. --Doctors work on separating the girls' pelvises.
8:30 p.m. --Work begins on the back side of the pelvic region. After 10 hours of surgery, the girls still have not needed a blood transfusion.
