Doctors' perspectives: Preparing to separate conjoined twins

A model of the shared abdomen of 16-week-old girls AmieLynn and JamieLynn Finley, who are omphalopagus (conjoined) twins, before their surgery. — Photos: TNS

Doctors have no map for how to separate conjoined twins.

The complex surgery is so rare and unique to each individual pair of babies that medical teams often start from scratch when evaluating whether twins could even survive the operation.