The conjoined twins, who were separated at a hospital in London in 2012, are now attending school for the first time.
In the UK, children start school at the age of four. However, when Rosie and Ruby were born, their parents Angela and Daniel Formosa did not know if their daughters would live to see this day.
After sixteen weeks, doctors informed the expectant mother that the girls had developed together in her womb. They found it challenging to predict if the children would survive.
The risk of having conjoined twins is 1 in 200,000, and it was the Formosa family who had this chance.
The girls were born at the thirty-fourth week of gestation through a caesarean section performed by doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.
The babies were joined at the abdomen. A few hours after birth, they were taken for the next procedure: doctors separated the children for a duration of 5 hours.
It was quite an urgent intervention.
The parents of the children were so afraid of losing their daughters that they did not buy anything for their birth. It was only after learning that the surgery had been successful that Daniel prepared the room for the babies.
After 21 days, they were sent home.
Angela Formosa said she felt like a million years had passed since that day. And then time flew by very quickly.
According to her, her daughters resemble each other a lot – they are both active, determined, very stubborn, love drawing and reading, and also – their future teacher, whom they have already met.
