Separated Twins Released From Hospital

SALT LAKE CITY – Twin 4-year-old girls who were born fused at the mid-torso were released from a hospital Sunday, six weeks after separation surgery.

Kendra and Maliyah Herrin left Primary Children’s Medical Center in the arms of their parents and will continue recovering at home in North Salt Lake.

A team of eight surgeons separated the girls, who were fused at the torso and sharing a pair of legs and critical organs, during a 26-hour operation that began Aug. 7.

Doctors divided their liver, the bladders and pelvis, leaving each girl with one leg. Kendra kept their shared kidney. Maliyah is receiving dialysis in preparation for a kidney transplant.

The surgery is believed to be the first successful separation of conjoined twins who shared a kidney, according to Dr. Rebecka Meyers, the hospital’s chief of pediatric surgery.