VIDEO: Conjoined Twins Survived Risky Operation, Now They Are 18!

Emily and Caitlin Copeland celebrate their 18th birthday sharing the happiest thoughts with us all. Even if they were born with a malformation, they were lucky enough to receive a second chance to live their life like normal persons. Doctors said the separation of the twins was difficult and risky, but looking at their faces now is the best proof that happy endings do exist. So beautiful!

Read the full story below, provided by Daily Mail.

A set of twins who were born joined at the hip for the first 10 months of their life are celebrating turning 18 today.
Emily and Caitlin Copeland, from Houston, Texas, are set to graduate as co-valedictorians from Lutheran High North in Houston.
‘I think for anyone it’s exciting to get to 18, but in particular for us I think it’s just a really big blessing that we got to 18, considering what could have happened,’ Caitlin said.
The twins’ mother Crystal Copeland says she will never forget the day she learned she was pregnant with conjoined twins, a phenomenon that occurs once in every 200,000 live births.
Between 40 percent and 60 percent are stillborn, and some 35 percent survive one day.
Mrs Copeland learned she was pregnant in 1996 when she was under the care of Dr. Kevin Lally, surgeon in chief at Hermann Memorial Children’s Hospital in Houston.
He promised to provide an honest assessment of the chances for survival – the babies were kicking. and Mrs Copeland had seen them in an ultrasound.
She had to wait a weekend to find out the extent of their joining.
And in late 1996, surgery and imaging were not as advanced.
‘At the time, if you Googled conjoined twins all you got was circus acts and babies that died,’ Ms Copeland said.
That weekend, she said, was the hardest in her life, but on Monday, the Copelands got the best news they could have hoped for.
‘They were joined at the liver, not at the heart, which would have been, you know, fatal,’ Mrs Copeland said.
‘He thought there were good opportunities for separation where they would both be able to live basically normal lives,’ she added.
The complications after the twins were born were concerning.
One was born with a blocked intestine, and surgery had to be conducted when they were just two days old.
Dr Lally wanted to separate them at that point, but when the surgery began doctors discovered they were not only conjoined at the liver but the organs were discharging through only one twin.
So doctors decided to wait for them to get bigger for the separation surgery.
Meanwhile, Mrs Copeland watched Caitlin, bigger and chubbier than Emily, try to roll over on her sister, who would scream, arms flailing to the sides.
Then Caitlin got on all fours and tried to crawl, but Emily was too heavy for her to drag.
Faced now with two smiling teenagers, rather than screaming toddlers who had to raise their shirts so he could inspect their scars, Dr Lally smiles.
‘You don’t always see the long-term results of what we do, and it’s nice when you get to see a good one,’ he said.

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