Formerly Conjoined Twins Make Progress

ByABC News
June 21, 2004, 9:04 AM

June 21, 2004 — -- There was only one gift Kevin Buckles really wanted this Father's Day. He wanted to see his twin girls begin new lives as separate and healthy sisters.

Buckles, a Marine gunnery sergeant at Quantico, Va., hoped for good news as he awaited the doctors report following a difficult surgery on his 4-month-old girlswho were conjoined at the heart.

Jade and Erin, from Woodbridge, Va., were surgically separated over the weekend at the Children's National Medical Center in Washington D.C.

The leader of the surgical team, Dr. Gary Hartman, told ABC News' Charlie Gibson that both girls opened their eyes and briefly moved around Sunday.

"They're doing well. They're in intensive care," Hartman said on Good Morning America. "But the issues that we're dealing with are ones we anticipated and both girls are making progress in the right direction on all those issues."

Hartman says Jade has had some respiratory problems, which weren't anticipated.

The girls had been connected from their chests to their abdomens and had shared a liver. The six-hour operation was performed Saturday and took four hours less thanexpected.

The twins remain in critical condition. ABC News' Primetime will be following the progress of the twins throughout their recovery this summer.