BEIJING – Chinese doctors separated a set of twin girls who shared parts of their hearts, livers and intestines, state media reported Thursday.

The girls, who were 6 days old when the surgery started Tuesday, remained in critical condition at the People’s Liberation Army Hospital No. 303 after the six-hour surgery, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

A team of four doctors at the hospital in Nanning, capital of south China’s Guangxi region, separated the twin’s livers, repositioned their hearts and divided a shared intestine.

“However, they are critically ill and we expect them to stay that way for the next seven days,” Dr. Shi Dekun, the lead surgeon, was quoted as saying.

It was rare to perform separation surgery on newborn conjoined twins, Shi said, but one or both would have died if the operation was delayed.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)