Cojoined Twins Miraculously Separated!

The parents of conjoined twins who were successfully separated yesterday described the surgery as a 'miracle'.

Rital and Ritag Gaboura, who are 11 months old, survived at odds of one in 10 million after undergoing four complex operations to separate their heads at London's Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.

The sisters, who were born in Khartoum, Sudan, were brought to Britain for the procedure by their parents Abdelmajeed Gaboura, 31, and, Enas, 27.

The girls were separated over four stages with the final operation performed on August 15. The parents; Mr and Mrs Gaboura, who are both doctors, added: "We did not believe it at first, it was a miracle. We never thought that we would have two normal girls. In fact I was unable to imagine what they would look like after separation until the first time I saw them."

The girls suffered from craniopagus. The first two operations separated parts of their shared vascular system. The third inserted tissue expanders to "stretch" the skin needed to cover their heads at the fourth stage, when they were finally separated.

Simon Eccles, craniofacial surgeon and secretary of Facing the World, said the girls were now "playing with toys, clapping and holding their milk bottles."