A new surgery might make it possible to separate 8-year-old conjoined twins who weren’t expected to survive past infancy. INSIDE EDITION has the touching story.
Sisters Tatiana and Anastasia have been connected at the head since the day they were born almost eight years ago. They've never even seen each other face to face without the help of a mirror. But now they want a new reality.
"I wish we were separate," said Anastasia.
At the top of the wish list is a desire for privacy. After all, can you imagine never being alone?
"I can go to the bathroom when I need to go, and I didn't need her to follow me all the time," said Anastasia.
Three years ago doctors attempted to separate the little girls. But because one had high blood pressure and the other low blood pressure the operation had to be halted after 10 grueling hours. It was a crushing blow to the girls and their parents, who live in Chicago.
But Tati and Ana, as they're called, have flourished none the less. They take swimming lessons, they work on separate computers at the same time, and they are star pupils at school.
"They are some of the sweetest girls I've met. It's become more and more clear every day that they're just normal seven-year-old girls," said the girl's school teacher Shaun Wild.
And like all girls they have dreams.
"What would you like to be when you grow up?" asked the girls' father Alin.
"There's many, many things that I am kind of good at, like cooking," said Tatiana.
Now doctors in Chicago are giving hope to parents Claudia and Alin. If the girls' blood pressure can be controlled a new operation might be in their near future.
And so as she lays them down to sleep, and reads them a bedtime story, this mother, like so many mothers, has just one wish for her daughters. It doesn't matter if they're separated or not, Claudia just wants her darling daughters to be happy.
