RIYADH: The Syrian twins conjoined at the head and separated by a team of doctors here about 10 days ago were breathing independently after they were taken off the ventilators on Wednesday.

Dr. Ahmed Al-Ferayan said the twin sisters were convalescing in two separate beds in the intensive care unit of the pediatric ward of the King Abdullah Specialist Children’s Hospital at the King Abdulaziz Medical City.

“Now they can breathe naturally, talk and move on their own,” he said, adding that their vital organs were functioning normally.

He stressed that the twins — Tuqa and Yaqeen — were in stable condition and that they get an opportunity to see each other.

The surgery, on Feb. 14, was the fourth and final stage of the separation of the twins. It was conducted by a multidisciplinary medical team headed by Al-Ferayan, who is a consultant neurosurgeon at the hospital.

The 14-hour surgery, which started at 7.30 a.m., was carried out in four phases.

The microscopic separation of the brains started at 1.30 p.m.

The success rate of the operation was stated to be 60 percent by the doctors.

The twins underwent a series of medical tests following their arrival at the KAMC in Riyadh, including a catheter angiography which showed that the extent the twins were conjoined was very high, especially in the arteries of the brain.

The first stage of the surgery was conducted on June 9, 2014, in which the veins between their brains were severed and a slice of silicon was inserted between the two brains by Dr. Riyad Alakely. Three months later, in the second stage, the remainders of the veins were separated along with a portion of the arteries that carried blood from Tuqa’s brain to Yaqeen’s.

During the third stage, which was very complicated, the third part of the veins and arteries were separated along with a part of the shared brain, and a slice of silicon was inserted between the two brains.

Al-Ferayan said that after completing the third stage, tissue expanders were inserted under the twins’s brains with the the supervision of Dr. Manaf Al-Azzawi and Dr. Nasser Al-Hodaib.

The team of neurosurgeons, besides Al-Ferayan, consisted of Dr. Ahmad Al Oraidi, Dr. Moutasem Azzubi, Dr. Sarmad Al-Karawi, Dr. Ali bin Salamah from King Saud University and Dr. Mahmoud Al-Yamany.

Al-Ferayan said that the multidisciplinary team involved in the separation comprised several disciplines such as pediatrics, anesthesia, plastic surgery, intensive care unit and nursing.