Click the play button on the video window to the right to see the storyDoctors at Phoenix Children's Hospital successfully separated conjoined twins after more than 12 hours of surgery Thursday night but more operations loom.
Alex and Angel Mendoza were born last summer and were joined from just below their sternums all the way down through their pelvises.
A team of more than 20 doctors and nurses worked to give the boys separate bodies and the two were stable throughout the surgery, hospital officials said.
"It was scary but right at the same time it was more anxious to see them than waiting for something bad to happen," said their mother, Ashley Frank.
The surgery started on January 15th at 7:30 a.m. and ended at 1 a.m. Friday January 16th.
Frank, of Kingman, gave birth in mid-August to the twins at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix.
The babies were delivered two months early after doctors saw there wasn't enough amniotic fluid supporting them.
Even though the surgery appears to be a success, Doctors say the twins will continue to need treatment, and quite possibly some follow up surgeries.
The boys' mother, Ashley Frank says, "I'm so grateful for the care my babies received here, it's helped that the doctors have kept me so informed and I'm grateful to the entire team."
And the boys' parents will wait to see how they do psychologically, now that they're separated.
"It's gonna be interesting to see how they do being seperated now because they're so used to being together and having somebody to slap in the face and everything," said their mom.
