Conjoined twin girls from Uganda separated in Ohio surgery

• Conjoined twin girls from Uganda who were attached at the hip and pelvic region have been successfully separated
• 11-month-old girls Acen and Apio are recovering after undergoing the 16-hour operation last Thursday
• The surgical team at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio included more than 30 people and was led by Dr. Gail Besner 
• Experts say conjoined twins occur once in about every 200,000 pregnancies 

Doctors at a central Ohio hospital have separated conjoined twin girls who were joined at the hip and pelvic region in a 16-hour operation.

The 11-month-old girls - named Acen and Apio - are now recovering after the complex procedure that was performed last Thursday at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus. 

The surgical team included more than 30 people and was led by Dr. Gail Besner, the hospital's chief of pediatric surgery.

Big news: Conjoined twin girls from Uganda who were attached at the hip and pelvic region have been successfully separated (above before the surgery with their mother Esther Akello)

Great news: 11-month-old girls Acen and Apio (above before the surgery) are recovering after undergoing the 16-hour operation last Thursday

The girls' family is from Uganda and traveled to the hospital in December.

Experts say conjoined twins occur once in about every 200,000 pregnancies, and Nationwide has now successfully separated four sets of these twins.

In a video shared by the hospital, Esther Akello - the mother of the twins - talked about how happy she was now that her girls have been separated. 

'I will be very happy to finally hold my babies in my arms and be able to fit them separately,' said Akello.

'It will be very exciting for me.' 

It is not clear how long it will take for the girls to recover from the complicated procedure. 

'It took approximately 30 people in order to successfully separate these twins,' explained Dr. Besner.

Specialists had to carefully untwine the spinal cords of the two girls as technicians monitored the nerve functions to see which nerves belonged to Acen and which ones belonged to Apio. 

After that their soft tissue was divided, followed by the reconstruction process.

Miracle workers: The surgical team at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio included more than 30 people and was led by Dr. Gail Besner

Doctor and patients: Dr. Besner holdS the girls shortly before their surgery (above)

Then, the two officially became separated.

'The surgery is going to be very helpful to the children because then they will be bale to feed on their own and they'll be able to grow up like normal children,' said Akello. 

The two girls have obviously become very close over the course of the past year, and given the way they were joined would often hold hands. 

'It's just the cutest little thing,' said Dr. Besner.

After being told the surgery was successful, Akello was jubilant and threw up her arms before giving Dr. Besner an emotional hug.

'The parents' faces when you tell them the babies are separated is something that you will never get out of your mind,' said Dr. Besner.

'You remember it for the rest of your life.' 

The surgery is not always successful however, with a procedure performed last month in Colorado on two girls just days after they were born resulting in the death of one.

Those twins were joined at the chest, abdomen and pelvis, and doctors found that the heart was not salvageable in one of the girls.

The mother of the twins, Amber McCullough, applauded the work done by Children’s Hospital of Colorado after the surgery, saying; 'Without Children’s Hospital of Colorado, neither of my daughters would have had a chance.'