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Formerly conjoined twins doing well One year after a neurosurgeon separated them by cutting through a section of brain, Carl Aguirre says Wow! as he whizzes a toy truck off the tray of his high chair and his brother Clarence holds his nose to let his mother know his diaper is dirty. After starting their life over, the formerly conjoined 3-year-old Filipino boys have been amazingly free of significant complications, doctors say. Clarence is about to take his first steps and therapists say Carl will soon follow. When they emerged from the OR as separate boys, it was almost as if that was their second birth, said Dr. Robert Marion, the boys pediatrician. Their motor skills are what youd expect of a 1-year-old. Theyre starting to walk. Theyre playing appropriately in the way that a 1-year-old would. Their speech, also, is like that of a 1-year-old. Until last Aug. 4, when they underwent the fourth in a series of major operations at the Childrens Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, Carl and Clarence had been unable to sit up, stand straight or see each others face. Joined at the top of their heads, they were limited to lying on their backs, which stunted their development and subjected them to chronic pneumonia caused by inhaling food. They were going to die, Marion said. And now seeing them with unlimited potential, its the most gratifying experience Ive ever had in medicine. | 
