--- title: Conjoined Baby Twin Boys Separated After Craniopagus Surgery description: Twin boys born with their heads conjoined have been successfully separated following a complex surgery which took nearly 16.5 hours canonical: https://time.com/4531143/conjoined-twins-successfully-separated/ author: Kate Samuelson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-14T14:19:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T10:16:49.576Z article:section: Health og:title: Conjoined Twins Successfully Separated in 16-Hour Surgery og:description: The twin's surgery carried major risks, including death or longterm brain damage og:url: https://time.com/4531143/conjoined-twins-successfully-separated/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteadf79d8d997851a/6988aa0bcd1bba7a6b702b51/6164937_1473018095-52681.jpg?branch=production&width=800&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 800 og:image:height: 450 og:image:alt: conjoined twins og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Conjoined Twins Successfully Separated in 16-Hour Surgery twitter:description: The twin's surgery carried major risks, including death or longterm brain damage twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteadf79d8d997851a/6988aa0bcd1bba7a6b702b51/6164937_1473018095-52681.jpg?branch=production&width=800&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Conjoined Twins Successfully Separated in 16-Hour Surgery > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Oct 14, 2016 2:19 PM UTC  Anias and Jadon McDonald were born conjoined at the head, on Sept. 9, 2015. Anias and Jadon McDonald were born conjoined at the head, on Sept. 9, 2015.GoFundMe by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Oct 14, 2016 2:19 PM UTC Twin boys born with their heads [conjoined](http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/11/05/the-conjoined-twins-share-thoughts-and-senses/) have been successfully separated following [complex surgery](http://time.com/4024817/conjoined-twins-ohio-uganda/) that took nearly 16.5 hours. Jadon and Anias McDonald, who are 13-months-old, underwent craniopagus surgery at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, [_CNN_](http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/14/health/conjoined-twins-separation-surgery/index.html?sr=twCNN101416conjoined-twins-separation-surgery1056AMStoryLink&linkId=29929432) reports. The [rare operation](https://www.gofundme.com/xm56uxxu) carries major risks, including death or longterm brain damage. The surgery—only the 59th of its kind since 1952—was led by Dr. James Goodrich, who established the practice of performing separations in several short stages rather than in one operation lasting over two days. Following the operation, he told the boys’ family “Well, we did it.” On [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/NickiMar14/posts/10101963834212602?pnref=story), the boys’ mother, Nicole McDonald, wrote that Dr. Goodrich said the case was the hardest he’d encountered. “We are definitely not out of the woods by any means,” she said. “There was a point where Dr Goodrich debated stopping the whole procedure because it was just too risky, but an opening presented itself and they went for it and it ended up being the right call.” In the post, McDonald also shared how she felt about the future. “It’s a bit surreal to sit here and type this,” she added. “I should feel so happy…TWO SEPARATE BABIES!!!…and yet I ache with the uncertainty of the future. I didn’t cry until the surgeon’s left the room. I was barely able to even utter the words ‘thank you’ because of the pit that still sits heavy in my stomach.” \[[_CNN_](http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/14/health/conjoined-twins-separation-surgery/index.html?sr=twCNN101416conjoined-twins-separation-surgery1056AMStoryLink&linkId=29929432)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4531143/conjoined-twins-successfully-separated/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4531143/conjoined-twins-successfully-separated/"},"headline":"Conjoined Twins Successfully Separated in 16-Hour Surgery","datePublished":"2016-10-14T14:19:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T10:16:49.576Z","description":"The twin's surgery carried major risks, including death or longterm brain damage","url":"https://time.com/4531143/conjoined-twins-successfully-separated/","keywords":["medicine","twins","Surgery"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteadf79d8d997851a/6988aa0bcd1bba7a6b702b51/6164937_1473018095-52681.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kate Samuelson","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteadf79d8d997851a/6988aa0bcd1bba7a6b702b51/6164937_1473018095-52681.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"conjoined twins","caption":"Anias and Jadon McDonald were born conjoined at the head, on Sept. 9, 2015.","creditText":"GoFundMe","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/medicine/","name":"medicine"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4531143/conjoined-twins-successfully-separated/","name":"Conjoined Twins Successfully Separated in 16-Hour Surgery"}}]}] ```