NEW YORK — Forty medical experts at a New York hospital have worked for 20 hours to successfully separate conjoined twins attached at the head.

Officials at Brooklyn's Montefiore Medical Center say 13-month-old boys Jadon and Anias McDonald are recovering after the marathon procedure, which ended Friday before dawn.

Hospital officials say the twins have "a long road of recovery and rehabilitation ahead of them."

The twins' mother, Nicole McDonald, posted a picture of the first twin on Facebook while the second was still undergoing surgery. She said the atmosphere at the hospital is "one of celebration mixed with uncertainty." </s> Image copyright GoFundMe Image caption The condition occurs once in about 10 million births

Twin boys who were conjoined at the tops of their heads have been separated by a team of surgeons in New York.

Thirteen-month-old Jadon and Anias McDonald underwent 16 hours of surgery, and are now undergoing additional procedures to rebuild their skulls.

On Friday morning, the boys' mother Nicole McDonald wrote on Facebook that she is excited but "aches with the uncertainty of the future".

She also posted a photo of Jadon alone in his own hospital bed.

"I actually asked why they rearranged the room because I hadn't really internalised the idea that there would be two beds in here," Mrs McDonald wrote with the photo, also wishing her son a "happy rebirth day".

Image copyright Facebook Image caption Doctors say the boys will need to be fed with tubes for another week

In an earlier post, Nicole wrote: "It's a bit surreal to sit here and type this... I should feel so happy... TWO SEPARATE BABIES!!!...and yet I ache with the uncertainty of the future."

The boys were born with shared blood vessels and brain tissues, a very rare condition that occurs once in about 10 million births, doctors say.

Dr James Goodrich, who has performed similar operations for other children including two Syrian twins earlier this year, prepared for the operation by creating 3D models of the attached heads.

CNN's Sanjay Gupta, who witnessed the surgery, says that 80% of similar twins die if they have not been separated before the age of two.

The McDonald family moved house with their two-year-old son and twin boys from Chicago to New York to be closer to Montefiore hospital.

The family has raised more than $100,000 for the costs of surgery. </s> A pair of conjoined harbour porpoise twins were caught by fishermen off the coast of the Netherlands, reports New Scientist, in the 10th known case of conjoined twins in cetaceans.

This case of a single body and two fully grown heads, also known as partial twinning or parapagus dicephalus, is extremely rare -- only 9 other cases of conjoined twins in cetaceans, the group of animals which includes whales and dolphins, are known. Twins are extremely rare in cetaceans as there is usually not enough room in the body of female for more than one fetus.

Two-headed animals, called bicelphalic or dicephalic, and three-headed animals, or tricephalic, are the forms of polycelphaly, or the condition of having more than one head that exist in the real world, as opposed to mythical creatures like the Hydra. A polycephalic organism may be thought of as two or more beings with a shared body, and are formed by the same process as conjoined twins from monozygotic twin embryos.

Scientists believe the twins probably died shortly after birth because their tail had not stiffened, which is necessary for newborn dolphins to be able to swim. The fishermen who made the discovery unfortunately returned the twins to the ocean because they believed it would be illegal to keep such a specimen.

Although researchers will not be able to study the body of the twins, they can learn from photographs taken by the fishermen. "The anatomy of cetaceans is strikingly different from terrestrial mammals with adaptations for living in the sea as a mammal. Much is unknown," says Erwin Kompanje, a researcher at the Erasmus MC University Medical Center in Rotterdam and one of the authors of the paper describing the find.

He also remarked that although there are only 10 known cases, most instances of conjoined twins in cetaceans are never found because they born and die at sea. </s> Two-headed conjoined porpoises were recently hauled up by a fishing boat in the North Sea, not far off the coast of the Netherlands.

The bizarre-looking creatures were already dead, and the fishermen, who feared trouble from the authorities, took photos and then tossed the duo back overboard.

It's not clear exactly why the porpoises died, but the double-headed creatures likely could not swim, said Erwin Kompanje, a researcher at the Natural History Museum and the Erasmus MC University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, who recently wrote up the case in the June 7 issue of the journal Deinsea. Another cause may have been their fused hearts, which may not have worked adequately, Kompanje said. [Porpoise Photos: The World's Most Endangered Mammal]

Conjoined twins are a rarity for humans, but they're also extremely rare for harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena), Kompanje said. That's because newborn dolphins and porpoises, which are mammals, need to immediately start swimming on their own or they drown, Kompanje said.

"Normal twins are extremely rare in cetaceans, as there is not enough room in the mother's body to have more than one fetus," Kompanje told Live Science. One case report pegged the incidence of twinning in cetaceans at less than one in 200.

Only one past case of a harbor porpoise bearing twins has ever been reported. Given the rarity of twinning, it stands to reason that conjoined twins are even more of an oddity, Kompanje added. In the past, only nine other cases of conjoined twins have been reported in whales or dolphins, and most of these were described in fetuses pulled from dead pregnant females, according to the study.

Conjoined twins likely form in cetaceans in the same way they do in humans; either two separate embryos fuse after having separated, or a single embryo fails to completely split.

Harbor porpoises are the most abundant cetaceans in the waters off northwest Europe, with at least 345,000 of these creatures frolicking in these northern waters. Each female typically produces one offspring every year or two.

In the current case, the fused porpoises were first pulled up in the netting of a fishing boat on May 30, 2017, near Hoek van Holland, the Netherlands.

The creatures were clearly newborn; they had a floppy dorsal fin, an open umbilical opening and hairs in the rostrum, or beak-like snout — all telltale signs that the creatures were not long outside the womb. The body was about 27 inches (70 centimeters) long and weighed about 13 lbs. (6 kilograms).

However, the specimen had two completely formed heads and one fully formed body with two pectoral fins. This makes it likely that the porpoises were symmetrical conjoined twins (or "Siamese twins"), meaning fusion occurred between two well-developed embryos. The twins had fused side-by-side at the pelvis and abdomen. The lone genital opening revealed that the porpoises were male.

Because the fisherman tossed the porpoises overboard (they thought keeping the body would be illegal), other insights that could have been gleaned from the rare case are lost to science, the researchers said in the study.

If researchers had been able to study the porpoise more thoroughly, they likely would have captured 3D computed tomography (CT) scans, put the porpoises in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine, conducted CT angiography to study the blood vessels leading to and away from the heart, and 3D-printed a skeleton of the creature, Kompanje said. </s> BALTIMORE (WJZ)– The Johns Hopkins reconstructive surgery team has successfully performed the first total penis and scrotum transplant in the world.

The transplant recipient is a veteran who sustained injuries in Afghanistan.

“He had sustained just a devastating blast injury from an IED in Afghanistan, and he came to me originally for what we call conventional reconstruction,” Dr. Rick Redett said. “When we saw him and met him and examined him, and we knew we didn’t have much to offer him, we started thinking about transplantation.”

He is expected to be discharged from the hospital this week after recovering from the 14-hour surgery back on March 26.

“We are hopeful that this transplant will help restore near-normal urinary and sexual functions for this young man,” W.P. Andrew Lee, M.D., professor and director of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a release.

The penis and scrotum came from a deceased donor, and nine plastic surgeons and two urological surgeons were involved in the transplant surgery.

In a statement through the hospital, the patient said “When I first woke up, I felt finally more normal with a level of confidence as well. Confidence, like, finally I’m okay now.”

The patient has chose to remain anonymous.

Follow @WJZ on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook </s> The world’s first successful total penis and scrotum transplant was completed at Johns Hopkins Hospital on March 26, according to a news release issued Monday.

The procedure lasted 14 hours and involved nine plastic surgeons, two urological surgeons and a team of anesthesiologists, nurses and surgical technicians, according to the release. The transplant recipient, who wished to remain anonymous, is a young US serviceman who sustained injuries to his lower pelvis, lower abdominal wall and lower extremities in an improvised explosive device blast while serving in Afghanistan.

“While war injuries cause great suffering, disfigurement, and disability, they have also provided the impetus for medical discoveries,” said Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, chairman of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Johns Hopkins University and one of the surgeons in the case, in a news briefing.

“While extremity amputations are visible and resultant disability obvious, some war injuries are hidden and their impact not widely appreciated by others,” Lee added. “Genitourinary injury, where the male service members’ external genitalia are lost or severely damaged, is one such ‘unspoken injury of war.’ ”

In order to perform the transplant, the team had to obtain the necessary tissues — consisting of a penis, scrotum, and part of the lower abdominal wall — from a deceased donor, according to Dr. Rick Redett, clinical director of the Johns Hopkins genitourinary transplant program and another surgeon on the case.

“To perform the transplant, we procured the necessary tissue from the donor to restore normal anatomy in the recipient,” Redett said in a statement.

During the procedure, three arteries, four veins, and two nerves were connected under microscopic guidance in order to provide adequate blood flow and sensation to the transplanted tissue, Redett said.

According to Lee, the transplant serves as the culmination of over five years of research and collaboration between multiple medical disciplines at Johns Hopkins.

“In 2013, we assembled a team of plastic surgeons, urologists, transplant specialists, psychologists and bioethicists and began the preparation for genitourinary transplantation,” he said.

“We performed multiple surgical rehearsals of transplant in cadavers. We took notes of what we learned, refined our techniques and devised a plan for both graft procurement and transplantation.”

In 2014, the first successful penis transplant was performed in South Africa by a team of physicians at Stellenbosch University in Cape Town and Tygerberg Hospital. But the current case is the first to include transplantation of the scrotum and parts of the lower abdominal wall, according to Lee.

The transplant is an example of a type of procedure called vascularized composite allotransplantation, or VCA. VCA refers to the transplantation of multiple types of tissue such as skin, muscle and bone, according to the American Society of Transplantation. The term often refers to the transplantation of body parts such as arms, hands, faces and — now — genitals.

“These life-changing VCA transplants can only occur when a donor family looks past their grief and gives to someone in need,” said Alexandra Glazier, president of New England Donor Services, in a statement.

New England Donor Services is a federally designated organization that helps to coordinate organ and tissue transplants in the Northeast region, according to Glazier.

“Since 2009, New England Donor Services has requested and received permission 13 times from families for VCA donation resulting in the transplant of 19 VCA grafts,” she added. “In this case, we worked closely with our colleagues at the Living Legacy Foundation, the organ procurement organization serving most of Maryland, to facilitate and coordinate the recovery of this unique donation for transplant by the Hopkins team.”

According to Lee, the Comprehensive Transplant Center at Johns Hopkins has been a pioneer in many of the recent advancements in VCA procedures.

“Just over five years ago, the first quadruple amputee survivor in Iraq, US Army Sgt. Brendan Marrocco, received a double arm transplant at Johns Hopkins,” Lee said. “And just over five months ago, our team transplanted two new arms into Army National Guard Sgt. Eric Lund, who lost both arms just below his shoulders from a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.”

Nearly one month after the procedure, the penis transplant recipient appears to be recovering well and is expected to be discharged later this week, according to Redett.

“Our patient is recovering from the transplant well. He is up walking, and the graft shows no signs of infection or rejection,” Redett said. “It is our hope that such a life-enhancing transplant will allow him to regain urinary and sexual function and lead a more normal life.”

After the announcement of the surgery, the donor’s family, which also was not mentioned by name, also released a statement thanking the recipient for his service: “We are all very proud that our loved one was able to help a young man that served this country. We are so thankful to say that our loved one would be proud and honored to know he provided such a special gift to you. As a family, we are very supportive of all the men and women who serve our country and grateful for the job you did for this nation.” </s> A pediatrician at a prestigious children's hospital in Argentina has been detained by authorities in Buenos Aires after being accused of producing and distributing child pornography.

They said that the doctor, identified in Argentine media as Ricardo Russo, 55, drew the attention of law enforcement agencies from various countries, including U.S. Homeland Security, who were conducting an investigation into a child pornography ring.

Investigators at Homeland Security and Brazilian police contacted Argentine officials to inform them that images and videos of children seemed to be coming from their country.

The Security Ministry said in a statement that police detained the doctor Tuesday at the Juan P. Garrahan children's hospital in Buenos Aires.

ARGENTINA LAWMAKER FIGHTS FOR LIFE AFTER SHOOTING

The doctor is accused of producing and distributing child pornography, including images of 6-month-old babies taken at the hospital.

Authorities said he works as head of the Garrahan hospital's immunology and rheumatology department. He could not be reached for comment despite calls to the hospital, the security ministry and other officials.

His LinkedIn page lists past places of employment as the University of Texas Southwestern/Dallas Children´s Hospital and at the University of Toronto/Hospital for Sick Kids from 1990 to 1992.

The Argentine hospital said he had been removed from his post.

A specialized prosecutor's unit in charge of the investigation said they found "photos and videos of minors between six months and 14 years of age engaged in explicit sexual activities" on two computers owned by the doctor.

HEALTH AND BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS CAN LINGER AFTER CHILD ABUSE

Authorities said they seized computers and other equipment when they raided dozens of homes, including the doctor's. So far, he is the only one who has been detained although officials said they expected to detain others in the case.

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"We got a report and carried out raids where we seized computers and flash drives," said the Buenos Aires city justice secretary, Marcelo D'Alessandro. "And we found convincing evidence that the children were being abused."

"We have no doubt about his guilt," D'Alessandro asserted, according to La Nacion. "At the city police department we feel satisfaction over having this monster off the street."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. </s> Physicians at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore have performed the first total penis and scrotum transplant in the world, the hospital announced on Monday.

The surgery, which took place over 14 hours on March 26, was performed by a team of nine plastic surgeons and two urological surgeons. The penis and scrotum (without testicles) and partial abdominal wall came from a deceased donor. The recipient is a military veteran who was injured by an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Afghanistan and wishes to remain anonymous. The hospital said he has recovered from the surgery and will be discharged from the hospital this week.

“It’s a real mind-boggling injury to suffer, it is not an easy one to accept,” the transplant recipient said in a statement released by Johns Hopkins. “When I first woke up, I felt finally more normal… [with] a level of confidence as well. Confidence… like finally I’m okay now.”

The procedure is the second penis transplant to be publicly reported in the United States, but the first full transplant of this kind. In 2016, surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital performed the first penis transplant in the U.S. on a man who had his penis amputated due to penile cancer.

Read more: The New Transplant Revolution

The Johns Hopkins team has been planning for penis transplant procedures for years, with the goal of eventually helping wounded veterans. A 2016 report found that from 2001 to 2013, 1,367 men in the United States military suffered injuries to their genitals or urinary tract in Iraq or Afghanistan. The report also found that most of the injuries were caused by bomb blasts, and over a third were considered severe. Among the injured men, 94% were age 35 or younger. “Many men sustained disfiguring genital injuries during their peak years of sexual development and reproductive potential,” researchers wrote in the 2016 report.

A penis transplant is a complicated procedure that includes connecting all the arteries, veins, nerves, the skin and the urethra to the recipient. Each penis removal and injury can be different depending on which parts are removed, but surgeons hope that for at least some men, sexual function can be restored. “We are hopeful that this transplant will help restore near-normal urinary and sexual functions for this young man,” Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, professor and director of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a statement. Other men are now undergoing screening for the procedure, Lee said in a news conference.

The Johns Hopkins team decided not to transplant the donor’s testicles because such a transplant could allow genetic material to be passed on from the donor. The hospital said there are too many unanswered ethical questions surrounding that kind of transplant.

Penis transplants are estimated to cost $50,000 to $75,000. As of now, hospitals are largely footing the bills. Since the procedures are still considered experimental, they are not covered by insurance. Johns Hopkins covered the cost of the veteran’s transplant, and the doctors there are in the process of applying for a research grant that would offer coverage for further procedures. </s> BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - One of the chief pediatricians at a respected children’s hospital has been detained for allegedly producing and distributing child pornography, Argentine authorities said Wednesday.

The Security Ministry said in a statement that police detained the 55-year-old doctor Tuesday at the Juan P. Garrahan children’s hospital in Buenos Aires. Officials said he was detained with help from the FBI and authorities in Brazil as part of a joint operation to break up a child pornography ring.

The doctor is accused of producing and distributing child pornography, including images of 6-month-old babies taken at the hospital.

The man’s name was not disclosed, but authorities said he works as head of the Garrahan hospital’s immunology and rheumatology department. He could not be reached for comment despite calls to the hospital, the security ministry and other officials.

The hospital said the doctor had been removed from his post. “The hospital community is mobilized and dismayed waiting for information to clear up what happened,” a statement said.
Surgeons separate craniopagus conjoined twin boys in New York City.