British Doctors Separate Twins Joined At Head

British doctors have successfully separated twin baby girls who were joined at the head in a case that has made medical history.

Rital and Ritag Gaboura, who are 11 months old and were born in Khartoum, Sudan, were operated on by a team at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

Conjoined twins are extremely rare, with the occurrence estimated at between one in 50,000 and one in 100,000 births.

Craniopagus (head-to-head) twins make up only around 5% of cases of conjoined twins and only one in 10 million survive to infancy.

Ritag supplied half of her sister's brain with blood, while draining most of it back to her own heart which meant her body was doing most of the work for both of them.

When the sisters' parents approached the charity Facing The World for funding help, Ritag's heart was already starting to fail.

The charity was able to organise surgeons at the world-famous children's hospital to operate for free on the girls.

They underwent four operations over the year and were finally separated on August 15.

Beating incredible odds, within days the girls were back on the general ward interacting and playing as before.

Their parents, Abdelmajeed and Enas Gaboura, who are both doctors, have thanked the doctors and say they are looking forward to taking their girls home.

"We are very grateful to all the doctors who volunteered their time and to Facing The World for organising all the logistics and for paying for the surgery."

The surgeon who led the operation, David Dunaway, said it had presented huge challenges.

"The incidences of surviving twins with this condition are extremely rare. The task presented innumerable challenges and we were all very aware of our responsibilities to the family and these two little girls," he said.

"The Gaboura family have been extremely brave throughout a very stressful journey and their love for their children is clear to see."

Although Rital and Ritag's recovery is going well, their young age means it is not known if they will suffer from lasting neurological problems.

Facing The World is dependent on donations from the public.