London: A pair of Pakistani conjoined twins are finally living independent lives after a 100-strong team of British medical experts spent 50 hours performing complex surgery to separate them. Safa and Marwa Ullah were born to Zainab Bibi in January 2017. They were craniopagus twins, who are joined at the head.
A wealthy benefactor offered to bear the travel and surgery expenses.
As reported by the New York Times, in multiple operations, surgeons separated the brains and the blood vessels intertwined in the girls’ conjoined skulls. Then, they inserted a piece of plastic between the two brains to complete the separation internally. Finally, the surgeons worked on stretching the skin and building separate skulls with the girls’ own bones.