Separated twins Miracle, Testimony thrive at Le Bonheur

MEMPHIS -- When they're not squirming in their parents' laps, or gobbling up everything from baby food to cheese puffs, Miracle and Testimony Ayeni like to watch movies —-- the Disney production "Frozen" being their overwhelming favorite. 

But during quiet times, when they're placed in the same crib, there's something else they like to do: hold hands.

The 1-year-old twins, conjoined at birth, are separated now. But they're never far apart.

On the 10th floor of Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, the girls continue to recover and improve following the 18-hour operation Nov. 7-8 in which a team of surgeons separated them. Their parents express delight in the twins' progress.

"The process of healing is so fast," their father, Samuel Ayeni, says.

"They eat whatever you put in front of them," mom Mary Ayeni adds.

The Nigerian girls were born as ischiopagus conjoined twins, meaning they were fused at the lower halves of their bodies, with their legs splayed apart as if they were doing the splits against one another. They shared parts of their intestines and a colon, and one had both kidneys fused together. Their bladders exchanged blood and drainage with one another. 

The Ayeni family, who include a 3-year-old daughter, wound up in Memphis largely through the efforts of the Linking Hands Foundation, a Nigeria-based group connected to the United Nations Children's Fund and dedicated to the health and education of kids. The foundation contacted Dr. Uzoma Ben Gbulie, a Le Bonheur plastic surgeon and Nigerian native who checked into having the surgery conducted in Memphis.

Le Bonheur had been the site of an operation in August 2011 to separate twin boys from Memphis who were fused together, back-to-back, at the pelvis and lower spine. The operation was described as the first in the city in which both babies who had been born conjoined survived separation.

The girls' recovery is progressing well now, doctors say, but there have been difficulties, mainly involving the healing of wounds from the operation. Testimony had to stay in the intensive care unit longer —-- about 10 days in all —-- and undergo additional surgery to deal with infection complications.

Twins separated at Le Bonheur in 18-hour surgery

"The initial two to three weeks was a challenge," said Dr. Max Langham, who led the 15-member pediatric surgical team that separated the girls.

Until Dec. 19, Miracle and Testimony also had to wear devices called external fixators to remold their pelvises, which had been fused, from the flattened shape they had from birth to a more bowed, natural form. With the fixators, which are pinned into the bone, "it's like having an erector set around you," Langham said.

The girls, who turned 1 last month, can't walk or even crawl yet, but doctors are "thrilled" by their progress, Langham said. They believe the twins eventually will be able to run, play and have active lives.

Already, they're becoming more vocal and animated.  

"As they feel better, they're getting a little more bossy and opinionated, which is as it should be," Langham said.

While Miracle and Testimony continue to recover in neighboring rooms in Le Bonheur, the rest of the Ayeni family is staying at FedExFamilyHouse, the nearby facility on Poplar that serves families of Le Bonheur patients. There's no timetable on the girls' release from the hospital.

"We will have them as long as they need to be here," Langham said. 

Mary Ayeni says the family's faith in God has carried them through the ordeal.

"We believe he can do all things, and he has done it."