A pair of twins conjoined at the head have been successfully separated after a 20-hour operation.
Anias and Jadon McDonald, 13 months old, are recovering in the Bronx's Montefiore Hospital after their life-threatening operation on Thursday.
According to their surgeon - Dr James Goodrich - it is incredible they made it this far.
Half way through the operation, the veteran neurosurgeon considered stopping the procedure altogether when they discovered the boys shared far more brain tissue than they had expected - even despite using 3D imaging to prepare.
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| Made it out: One of the twins, Jadon (pictured), is recovering in his ward on Friday. |
With every cut, Anias' heart rate and blood pressure plummeted.
Eventually he found an opening and continued, successfully separating the two.
However, it means that while Jaden is recovering relatively well, Anias was still in surgery late on Friday morning, and could face severe physical issues.
Their parents Nicole and Christian, from near Chicago, Illinois, sat in the waiting room the whole time.
Nicole, 31, took to Facebook on Friday to explain all the details to the thousands of people that have followed the family's story.
'The overall atmosphere was one of celebration mixed with uncertainty,' she explained.
They boys were born via cesarean section last September near Chicago, Illinois.
They were attached by the crown of the head.
Nicole and 37-year-old Christian insisted the boys were perfect as they were.
But in order to let them lead a normal life, they have traveled to Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, New York, to have one of the world's most esteemed surgeons perform the incredibly rare operation to separate their heads.
The operation costs $2.5 million.
The boys were wheeled into the operating theater at 7.15am on Thursday.
'I could almost keep them like this,' Nicole told CNN before the operation, admitting that she had become attached to the boys this way.
She said she knew this was for the best, but the fear that something could go wrong during surgery was excruciating.
'This is so hard. I'm not going to sugarcoat it,' she said.
Anias and Jadon, who have a three-year-old brother Aza, are technically called 'craniopagus twins' - a phenomenon that occurs just once in every 2.5 million births.
Based on national statistics, it is astonishing they made it to 13 months.
Around 40 per cent of craniopagus twins are stillborn.
Of those that survive, a third die within 24 hours of birth
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