Erin and Abby Delaney are two year-old twins who were born conjoined at the brain. One and a half years ago, doctors performed what was called one of the riskiest separation surgeries ever, warning their parents that it was likely one or both of them would not make it. That’s why it has come as such a happy surprise that not only did they survived the surgery, but these days, they are developing like normal kids their age!

“They’re just growing and changing and amazing little people and I can say they are really my heroes for what they have been through,” said their mother Heather.

Doctors have been left in awe of the progress the twins have made so much so that they are studying the surgery performed on them in the hopes of replicating it in the future.

“Some of the stuff they were doing had never been done before so we didn’t know how it was going to work out,” Heather said. “Luckily everything turned out incredible. We have miracle little girls to show for it.”

The twins were born as craniopagus twin, which is the most rare form of conjoined twins and means they were attached at the top of the skull. They were separated in June of 2017 when they were 11 months-old at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. At the time, doctors admitted that they were nervous.

“This is scary, and we’re scared, but we can’t let fear limit our ability to operate. We have to do the operation that needs to be done,” said neurosurgeon Dr Gregory Heuer.

Since then, Erin has had a smoother recovery because more of her skull is intact. Abby has had a harder time, as she has battled a brain bleed and multiple infections, but doctors are optimistic that both girls will develop normally from here on out. In the next few years, the girls will undergo reconstructive surgeries to replace the missing bones in their skulls.

“The girls are inspiring,” Heather said. “As their parents, it is very neat for Riley and me to have a front row seat to this and watch them overcome these incredible obstacles. We cannot wait to see what their future holds.”

Find out more about how these precious twins are doing today in the video below!