Ex conjoined twins leave hospital; staff bids farewell

Richmond, Virginia.- Maria Teresa and Teresa Maria Tapia, two formerly conjoined twins of the Dominican Republic separated surgically left the Richmond Pediatric Hospital Friday, AP reports.

Doctors, nurses and the entire staff which attended them bid warm farewell to the babies, their mother and her aunt. The 20 month old twins were separated November 8 after a complex operation of nearly 24 hours in the Hospital of the University of Virginia.

In a sequence of procedures, the surgical tea divided their liver, pancreas and other organs they had shared when conjoined and their abdominal wall reconstructed.

Both will remain in Richmond as ambulatory patients and they’ll now relearn to walk and reorient their now independent movements.

The twins are expected to return to Dominican Republic before Christmas. "They already enjoy life now that they are separated," said their mother, Lisandra Sanatis. “They enjoy to seeing each other as independent people."