Houston surgeons separate 10-month-old conjoined twin girls

(AP)—Doctors were optimistic 10-month-old conjoined twin girls will survive the surgery that has separated them.

It took 26 hours last week to separate the girls, Knatalyne Hope Mata and Adeline Faith, who shared a chest wall, lungs, a part of their heart lining, diaphragm, liver, colon, intestines and pelvic area, according to lead surgeon Dr. Darrell Cass. The surgery, which took place at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, had been planned since before they were born last April.

"The surgery was not without its challenges, with the girls sharing several organ systems, but we're very pleased with how they're doing," Cass told the Houston Chronicle (bit.ly/1DdS5C3 ). "We're very optimistic they can both have a really great outcome."

The girls were in stable but critical condition, will be on ventilators for the next week and are expected to be in intensive care for a couple of months, then have more surgery later.

Cass said about five hours into the operation, Adeline's blood pressure dropped to where the surgical team needed to manually pump her heart to resuscitate her. She recovered after about five to eight minutes.

The surgical team included eight nurses, six anesthesiologists and 12 surgeons.

The conjoined condition of the girls was discovered during a routine ultrasound in January 2014. Each weighed 3 pounds, 7 ounces (1.6 kilograms) at birth, and have since been in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit and grew to more than 20 pounds (9 kilograms).