The Siamese Twins (born in Thailand, once Siam--it's certainly appropriate that the twins can be called Siamese Twins) shared parts of the heart and liver. The successful separation surgery at Bangkok's Siriraj Hospital is just the third successful separation (out of 14) performed at that hospital in the past 36 years.
Twin sisters, Azama and Azami Kamarul Zaman, are born in April in Malaysia. They are successfully separated in surgery performed at Kuala Lumpur Hospital in November. The surgery takes 13 hours to complete.
Twin girls, Marisol and Mariana Villalobos, are born in Mexico in September. The parents don't find out they are having conjoined twins until the 8th month of their pregnancy. Doctors at the Western Medical Center Pediatric Hospital in Guadalajara separated the girls, who shared a pericardium (sac surrounding the heart) but had separate hearts, on February 4, 2003. Marisol died 2 weeks after the operation.
Twin borns originally named Hassan and Hussein but later renamed to Rashid and Hamdan are born August 14 in Baghdad, Iraq. After a plead for support from the twins father, Dubai Crown Prince Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum lends financial assistance for a successful separation performed in November in Dubai. The boys were born joined at the pelvis.
Four-year-old conjoined at the pelvis twins are successfully separated in surgery performed in Saudi Arabia in September. The boys, Ahmad Rosli and Muhamad Rosli, are from Malaysia. Tests performed in England reveal the twins can be separated and then a Saudi prince generously pays for the surgery in late summer.
Guatemalen twin sisters, Maria de Jesus and Maria Teresa Quiej-Alvarez, attract world-wide attention as they are separated at the UCLA Medical Center. The rare separation of Craniopagus twins (joined at the head) takes place in a 22-hour operation that ends early August 6. The twins were born in Suchitepequez, Guatemala on July 25, 2001. They return home to Guatemala with their parents in January, 2003.
Two-month-old twins, Maria de los Angeles and Maria del Milagro Brenes, pass away due to respiratory problems on July 9. The twin sisters had been born in Alajuelita, Costa Rica. They shared a malformed heart and were joined together at the thorax.
A pair of seven-month-old twin girls are separated in surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center on May 17. Louice and Christine Onziga were born in Uganda on October, sharing a heart and liver. A positive prognosis is proclaimed after a difficult separation surgery.
Twin boys . Clarence and Carl Aguirre, are born in Negros Occidental in The Phillipines in May. The craniopagus twins travel to New York in September, 2003 to see if doctors in the United States can separate the pair.
A British couple, . Tina May and Dennis Smith, give birth to twin girls, Natasha and Courtney, on April 29. The two girls share one liver and one heart and initially it is thought that one must be sacrificed in order for the other to live. It's later determined that neither would likely survive separation surgery and the girls tragically pass away on May 17.
Twin girls . Jazmine and MaKayla Heaberlin, are born at Ohio State University Medical Center on April 24. Joined at the chest and abdomen, they are succesfully separated in surgery on August 30, and are able to return to their Mansfield, Ohio home with their mom, Trinda Kaminski, in early January, 2003.
A pair of four-month-old twin girls are separated in surgery in Cape Town, South Africa on April 18. Zinzi and Zanele Kona had been joined at the abdomen. The 20-hour operation is deemed a success and the future prognosis for both twin girls is very bright.
A pair of five-month-old twin girls are separated in surgery in Indianapolis on March 14. The unnamed girls were born in Indiana. They were connected at the abdomen.
A set of conjoined girls are born in Dhaka, Bangladesh on January 24, and tragically die in separation surgery performed on January 29. The twins, Mim and Alif, briefly survive the separation surgery to become the first twins in their country to survive that type of surgery but each twin dies within 10 hours of the operation.
