SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif (KTXL) — The holidays were extra special for one California family as their conjoined twin daughters were separated just in time to go home for Christmas.
It’s a moment that was a long time coming.
“We have been praying for this day,” said Liliya Miroshnik, the mother of 11-month-old twin daughters Abigail and Micaela Bachinsky.
Abigail and Micaela finally got to go home for Christmas after they were discharged from UC Davis Children’s Hospital.
“To be home with them, healthy, nice and beautiful girls, two babies, it’s very exciting, it’s a huge blessing,” Miroshnik told NewsNation affiliate KTXL.
Miroshnik dubbed her girls “miracle babies” as the twins were conjoined at birth, suffering from a condition known as craniopagus, which connected them at the head. Experts say the condition occurs once every 2.5 million births.
The twins dealt with that condition for nearly 10 months. In October, a 24-hour separation surgery with a team of more than 30 professionals finally separated the twins and reconstructed their skulls and scalps.
“It was really a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Dawn Harbour, a clinical nurse specialist at UC Davis Children’s Hospital.
Officials with the UC Davis Children’s Hospital said this was the first separation of conjoined twins done on their campus.
“It’s just miraculous that they’re separated, and it appears to us that there’s not any deficits and you’re just in awe and just so thankful you got to be a part, really of a miracle,” Harbour told KTXL.
Miroshnik said even though the twins are separated, to her they are together forever and together this Christmas with family.
“I think that is the best present of my life,” Miroshnik said.
The family will have more to celebrate as the twins will celebrate their first birthday on Dec. 30.