Video shows twin brothers once conjoined speaking weeks after separation surgery

Doctors feared they wouldn’t make it to Christmas. 

But Jadon and Anias McDonald, twin brothers who were conjoined at the head, are thriving post-separation surgery. 

The boys were discharged from hospital on Thanksgiving and have been recuperating with their parents at a rehabilitation center.

And now their mother Nicole has posted the first video of them since leaving hospital. 

The adorable clip shows the boys cuddling – something they could never do before – and speaking.

‘Dada’, Jadon gargles at the camera and Anias wraps his arms around him.

Brotherly love: Jadon (left) and Anias (right) are thriving just weeks after separation surgery

The boys, pictured in hospital with their mother Nicole shortly before being discharged

With the video, Nicole described her love for the boys.

‘[…My heart has to keep growing to fit all the love you create inside of me,’ she wrote.

But her happiness was tinged with pain as she spoke out about the horrible experience of receiving abuse online.

‘I mistakingly read through some comments on one of the CNN videos featured on a different news source,’ Nicole admitted to her thousands of Facebook followers.

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‘My insides turned as I read the cruel comments “why didn’t that mom just abort that creature” “that retard mom thinks her children are perfect” “that mom is in serious denial that monster looks like it came straight out of a nuclear area” “that woman should be sterilized” “this is why I believe in forced sterilization” and on and on and on. 

‘I mourn for those people and their hateful hearts. Obviously this “creature” should not have been “forced” to be born and live such an awful life…. #alllivesmatter.’

The pair were moved to a rehab facility shortly after Thanksgiving, six weeks after surgery.

It was the fastest recovery for separation of craniopagus twins (conjoined at the head) in history, beating the previous record of eight weeks.

Jadon was already ready to move, as he quickly bounced back to his vibrant, active, and energetic self, pulling at his bandages and playing with anyone who entered the ward.

The boys were born via cesarean section last September near Chicago, Illinois. They were attached by the crown of the head

Nicole and 37-year-old Christian insisted the boys were perfect as they were. But in order to let them lead a normal life, they traveled to Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, New York, to have one of the world’s most esteemed surgeons perform the rare operation to separate their heads

Anias and Jadon, who have a three-year-old brother Aza, were technically called ‘craniopagus twins’ – a phenomenon that occurs just once in every 2.5million births

Anias, who was already struggling before the operation, was having more difficulties, regularly contracting viruses and infections.

But their surgeon Dr Philip Goodrich was confident Anias would pull through, and he thought Jadon was a great force of energy for him at this time. 

The boys were born via cesarean section last September near Chicago, Illinois. They were attached by the crown of the head.

Nicole and 37-year-old Christian insisted the boys were perfect as they were.

But in order to let them lead a normal life, they traveled to Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, New York, to have one of the world’s most esteemed surgeons perform the incredibly rare operation to separate their heads.

The operation cost $2.5million. 

‘This is so hard. I’m not going to sugarcoat it,’ Nicole said before the operation.

Anias and Jadon, who have a three-year-old brother Aza, were technically called ‘craniopagus twins’ – a phenomenon that occurs just once in every 2.5million births.

Based on national statistics, it is astonishing they made it to 13 months.

Around 40 percent of craniopagus twins are stillborn. Of those that survive, a third die within 24 hours of birth.

If craniopagus twins survive that point, there is still an 80 percent risk they will die before the age of two if they are not separated.

Separation meant one or both of the twins could suffer developmental complications.

Anias is certainly have troubles.

For a long time, Nicole couldn’t hold Anias because he had been slower to recover from the surgery and still has his breathing tube in.

Nicole has posted the first video of them since leaving hospital. The adorable clip shows the boys cuddling – something they could never do before – and speaking

Doctors warned this might happen because Anias suffered breathing issues, seizures and heart problems even before the surgery.

After the procedure, he continued to have seizures but doctors put him on medication that stopped those attacks last month.

She did, however, get to hold Jadon, and described the moment in an emotional post on Facebook.

She said it was always her goal to be able to rock her 13-month-old son Jadon – something she could not do when her sons were conjoined at the head.

‘For over 13 months, I’ve dreamed of this moment,’ Mrs McDonald wrote.

‘I looked down at Jadon’s angelic face and saw him in a way I’d never seen him before.

‘He whimpered for almost the whole two hours I held him because he had just been extubated, had the area under his scalp washed out and had been weaned from the good pain meds.

‘But instead of wrapping my body around him in his bed, I wrapped my arms around him and rocked. One of the most profound moments of my life.’

The operation was performed by Goodrich, a neurosurgeon who specializes in separating conjoined twins at the head.

Dr Oren Tepper, a plastic surgeon, was in the room to reconstruct the skulls and stitch each head closed.

The team has spent months practicing and planning their strategy using a physical 3D model of the boys’ heads, plus computerized 3D modeling, where they can look at different scenarios.

A Go Fund Me page was made to help the family with the cost of the expensive surgery.