This was the delicate surgery that saved the lives of Ervina and Prefina.
They're Siamese twins who were born joined at the head. The operation was completed some weeks ago in the Vatican's pediatric hospital, Bambino Gesù.
The two-year-old girls are from the Central African Republic, a country where a surgical procedure of this nature was impossible. The president of the hospital discovered the twins in Bangui when she traveled to the hospital built there with the pope's economic help.
MARIELLA ENOC
President of Bambino Gesù Hospital
“Ervina and Prefina struck me in a particular way. They were only a few days old. They were in a small bed. I was told it was unlikely they would survive because even a small infection could kill them.”
The surgery lasted 30 hours and required a team of 30 doctors and nurses.
The twins' mother hoped the pope would baptize the girls when they recovered, and her dream has come true. Ervina and Prefina, thanks to this surgery, have been born twice, as their mother says.
