Siamese twins may soon be ready for separation

SIAMESE twins Carl and Clarence Aguirre celebrated their second birthday at a New York hospital, scooting around on a mat with other children, clapping their hands to music and receiving separate birthday cakes.

The other children at Blythedale Children’s Hospital wore party hats, but Carl and Clarence, still joined at the tops of their heads, wore a bandage covering the area where surgeons have been working for six months to convert a tangle of blood vessels into separate circulation systems for independent lives.

Doctors and therapists have said the Filipino twins have been showing that they are ready for separation. One will sleep while the other’s awake; one will play while the other cries; and they fight over toys.