Huang Long and younger brother Huang Jianlong were connected from breastbone to navel, shared their liver and faced one another for the first 80 days of their lives. On April 17th they arrived in Shanghai via train in hopes that the Shanghai Children’s Medical Centre – a hospital that has successfully separated six conjoined twins in the past – would once again be successful in performing the complicated surgery which would allow the boys longer, healthier lives, separate from one another.
President of Shanghai Children’s Medical Centre, Professor Liu Jinfen said that the 5-hour procedure was very successful, adding that “there were no unexpected situations during the whole process.”
Chief surgeon during the boys separation, Professor Shi Chengren, said the Huang case was more complicated than those performed in the past because of younger twin Huang Jianlong’s congenital heart disease.
After the separation, the boys’ 29-year-old mother made her first public statement, telling the press "I had been crying and crying since the birth of my poor sons, my eyes became so swollen. Now I have no tears. For the first time, I can smile."
Both boys remained in stable conditions during the operation and have been placed under close supervision in an intensive care unit and are still at risk for post-surgical complications. Huang Jianlong, the younger of the boys, still awaits heart surgery and, now, thanks to the medical professionals at Shanghai Children’s Medical Centre the boys will have the chance to live separate lives.
