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CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – A South Texas woman gave birth to identical triplet girls over the weekend, with two of the babies conjoined at the pelvis.
Dr. Haroon Patel, a pediatric surgeon at Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi, said Monday that it will likely be at least six months until the conjoined babies, who share a colon, will be separated. While having triplets are common, it is rare for identical triplets to be born.
Catalina, Ximena and Scarlett were born Saturday at Corpus Christi Medical Center-Bay Area, said hospital spokeswoman Lisa Robertson. She said the conjoined girls — Ximena and Scarlett — were transferred Sunday to Driscoll.
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Patel said the conjoined babies, who were in good condition Monday at the hospital, will need to get "bigger and stronger" before undergoing separation surgery. He also said doctors will need time to work on a plan to separate the girls.
Robertson said the girls were born to Silvia Hernandez of Brownsville via cesarean section, at about 34 weeks. A normal pregnancy is about 41 weeks. Each baby weighed 4 pounds, 11 ounces. They were breathing without respirators.
Catalina remains at Corpus Christi Medical Center-Bay Area in good condition.
Hernandez and husband Raul Torres also have 2-year-old son.
The family has set up a GoFundMe.com page asking for donations to help pay for the babies’ medical expenses. They said Torres has to leave his job to take care of the babies and their son.
Others can also follow their story and progress on the Facebook page Siamese Triplets Hernandez Torres.
According to the page, the two conjoined babies underwent surgery on Monday, but thankfully everything was OK.
“My babies just got out of surgery nothing went wrong thank you god for looking after them they are in perfect condition and everything looks great on them thank you everyone for your support and prayers,” the parents wrote on the page.
Based on reporting by The Associated Press.
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