Prayers Answered: Twins Who Were Once Conjoined Celebrate Their First Birthday Apart

Once-conjoined twin girls just celebrated their first milestone since they underwent a miracle surgery to separate them.

Eva and Erika Sandoval rang in their third birthday surrounded by family and friends on Saturday – an occasion that signifies the girls’ ability to live their lives as individuals for all birthdays to come.

“To know that they were going to have separate individual lives, it was such an amazing prayer that was answered,” Eva and Erika’s at-home nurse told CBS13.

The twins’ parents, Sacramento residents Arturo and Aida Sandoval, said their daughters’ birthday was a “big deal” because they weren’t sure if the girls would make it to their third birthday.

“Being at the hospital, I can’t picture anything but getting the girls healthy,” Aida Sandoval said.

The girls were born conjoined at the chest. At 2 years old, a team of 50 doctors at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital performed a risky 17-hour surgery to separate them.

The surgery was successful, but the real challenge came after – during Eva and Erika’s road to recovery.

There were a lot of “unknowns” on how to care for the twins at first post-surgery, said Erica Keesis-Segura, who cared for the girls while they were in the neonatal intensive care unit at Stanford Children’s Hospital.

“How do we put a diaper on them? How do you hold them? How do we change them?” Kessis-Segura, who drove to Sacramento for the birthday party, recalled asking herself.