By Sarah Smithon Wednesday, 9 Aug 2006 Surgeons in the US have successfully separated conjoined twins who had one pair of legs and shared a kidney.
Kendra and Maliyah Herrin were born joined at the abdomen but are now recovering after the Utah doctors completed the separation operation, which took 26 hours.
The four-year-old girls' father, Jake Herrin, said: "We'd just like to formally announce that we have two separate little girls. We've really witnessed a miracle."
Kendra and Maliyah now have one leg each, and the shared kidney stayed with Kendra as it is in her torso. Maliyah will be placed on dialysis until she is strong enough to receive one of her mother's transplanted kidneys.
There were no complications during the operation, thought to be the first time that conjoined twins sharing a kidney have been separated.
"I am so grateful to be their mother and we are the proud parents of two separate little girls," said Erin Herrin, speaking on 'Good Morning America' today.
Conjoined twins, sometimes called Siamese twins, occur once in every 200,000 births.
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