For nearly 12 hours, five neurosurgeons took turns grinding away with a high-speed drill. Millimeter by millimeter, they cut out a foot-long strip of bone that ran from the front to the back of the fused skulls. Finally, they pried the curved section away, wrapped it in wet gauze, and placed it gingerly on a sterile tray. Looking down at the pair of exposed brains, the doctors couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. Only now would the real work of separating conjoined twins Ladan and Laleh Bijani start.
