Story highlights
Parents are in awe as they see Jadon for first time without head dressing
Brother Anias appears to be getting stronger, doctor says
Plastic surgeon: "The whole world has gotten behind these kids"
(CNN) —
The white dressing covering Jadon’s head is gently unwrapped, revealing a perfectly shaped head and a hairline with a natural curl.
It’s the first time his parents have seen him without his bandages in four weeks. That’s when he and his twin brother, Anias, born conjoined at the head, were separated in a 27-hour surgery at the Children’s Hospital at Montifiore Medical Center in the Bronx.
Mother Nicole McDonald stands at his bedside in awe. Although new bandages will be put on, the sight is breathtaking. “It’s the most amazing thing. I just can’t even believe it,” she says. “And look at his little hair. On top, it’s growing in!”
His father, Christian McDonald, leans in. “Hey there, my man,” he says, “You sure are handsome. Look at you. You look like a perfect little boy.”
Jadon stares up at them, waving his right hand. He then taps the top of his head.
“How does it feel to be your own little boy?” Dad asks. Mom mimics her son, touching her own head and, imagining what he’s thinking, asks, “Where’s my brother?”
Anias rests in his bed across the room, near a window. His head remains wrapped. “You’ve been having a tougher go of it, but you’re going to get through it,” Dad tells him.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Krisanne Johnson/Verbatim for CNN
Anias, left, and Jadon McDonald were born conjoined at the head, something only seen in 1 out of every 2.5 million live births. They were separated in a 27-hour surgery at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in New York in October.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Krisanne Johnson/Verbatim for CNN
Nicole and Christian McDonald talk with Dr. Sanjay Gupta in the family waiting area on October 13 as a team worked to separate Jadon and Anias. "When we sent them off this morning, to me, I felt at peace with it and just ready to handle what comes after," Nicole said.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Krisanne Johnson/Verbatim for CNN
Dr. James Goodrich Goodrich, left, leads a surgical team as they prepared to separate the twins. "Failure is not an option," Goodrich told the team as they got started.
Photos: 80 moments from the '80s
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Krisanne Johnson/Verbatim for CNN
The twins' surgery was Goodrich's longest craniopagus surgery. It's meticulous, tricky and complex: A single cut too deep can lead to catastrophic bleeding.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Krisanne Johnson/Verbatim for CNN
Goodrich's team worked more than 16 hours just to separate the boys, and each continued surgery individually afterward.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Krisanne Johnson/verbatim for CNN
Newly separated twins Anias, left, and Jadon in surgery at the hospital. Goodrich informed the family of the successful separation at about 3 a.m. October 14. "Well, we did it," he told them. When it was official, the room burst into spontaneous applause.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Krisanne Johnson/Verbatin for CNN
Jadon recovers in the pediatric intensive care unit shortly after the surgery.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Krisanne Johnson/Verbatin for CNN
Anias returns to his room after his head dressing was changed.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Krissanne Johnson/Verbatim for CNN
Jadon stretches his arms in his room within the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit. Anias rests in a nearby bed in the same room.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Courtesy Chris Grosso
Anias, left, stares at Jadon for the first time since the surgery that separated them.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Krissanne Johnson/Verbatim for CNN
Nicole McDonald, right, and her mother, Chris Grosso, with Anias in mid-November. Anias had to have his skull cap removed due to infection, but doctors say they are still pleased with his recovery.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Mark Kauzlarich for CNN
Anias, left, and Jadon lie in a red wagon at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center on December 13 as they prepare for the next stage of their journey, two months after their surgery.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Mark Kauzlarich for CNN
The family was headed to the hospital's banquet hall on December 13, where surgical and pediatric intensive care staff members were gathered for a farewell party.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Mark Kauzlarich for CNN
Dr. Oren Tepper, the twins' lead plastic surgeon, holds a thank you gift from the McDonald family presented to him at the farewell party.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Mark Kauzlarich for CNN
Nicole McDonald holds Anias as his twin brother, Jadon, sleeps in the bed to the left. The twins' older brother, Aza, watches television at the hospital from one of the boys' beds shortly before they left for rehab.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Mark Kauzlarich for CNN
Jadon, left, and Anias McDonald look up at hospital staff as they leave their room at Montefiore Children's Hospital in New York. Their older brother, Aza, proudly sits at the front of the wagon. It was mid-December and they were headed to rehab.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Mark Kauzlarich for CNN
Nicole McDonald pushes a stroller with Anias as her husband Christian pushes Jadon down a hallway on June 14 at Blythedale Children's Hospital in Valhalla, New York, where the boys have been rehabilitating.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Mark Kauzlarich for CNN
Anias plays with a toy while laying on a mat in his room at Blythedale Children's Hospital.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Mark Kauzlarich for CNN
Jadon eats small snacks and drinks from a sippy cup on his own, major progress since he first moved to rehab.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Mark Kauzlarich for CNN
Nicole McDonald plays with her son Anias as Christian McDonald holds Jadon on a playground outside Blythedale Children's Hospital.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Mark Kauzlarich for CNN
Nicole McDonald holds Jadon while looking over discharge information on September 1, as they prepare to leave the rehab facility and head home as a family for the first time.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Mark Kauzlarich for CNN
Nicole McDonald takes Anias into the family's new house for the first time with his older brother, Aza.
Photos: Conjoined twins separated: New life, apart
PHOTO:
Mark Kauzlarich for CNN
Christian McDonald holds his son Anias as Nicole McDonald checks on Jadon at home with the family dogs, Taz and Tyson.
The boys, now 14 months old, are set to move to rehab shortly after Thanksgiving, about six weeks after the surgery to separate them. The world’s previous record for recovery from such an operation, known as craniopagus surgery, was eight weeks. Many separated twins remain hospitalized for months.
Lead surgeon Dr. James Goodrich is checking on the twins in their 10th floor room on a rainy, unseasonably warm November afternoon. He’s considered the leading expert in the world on twins conjoined at the head, and this was his seventh craniopagus operation. But it was also his most complicated: the boys’ brains so intertwined, Goodrich considered stopping hours into the operation.
“Historically, this will be the fastest (recovery),” Goodrich says at Jadon’s bedside.
“I didn’t know that,” Nicole responds. “So they were maybe your hardest set, but the fastest ones out of the hospital.”
Goodrich nods. He attributes their remarkable recovery to one thing: “Just good kids.”
The surgeon marvels at how well Jadon and Anias are doing. “I’m the least complaining person in this room,” he says. “When they’re ahead of schedule, it makes everyone happy.”
Jadon is a bundle of energy – “a crazy wild man,” in his mother’s words. He chews on wires. He reaches for faces. He locks onto a gaze and smiles. He tugs at the dressing when it’s covering his head. It seems he can hardly be confined to his bed.
With twins joined at the head, Goodrich explains, there’s always a dominant child where one child does double the work, that child’s heart and lungs working overtime to keep both boys alive. In this case, Anias is the non-dominant child who has struggled with breathing and eating, even prior to the surgery. But Anias is progressing well, the doctors say, getting stronger since the surgery.
He often shrinks when people in scrubs approach, as if fearful he might ha
