According to a report from ABC News, once-conjoined twins, now nine months old, are finally ready to leave the Dallas hospital where they were born. The twins will move to a rehab facility before heading home.

The formerly conjoined twins, Owen and Emmett Ezell, were released from the Medical City Children’s Hospital on April 15.

The twins were born in July of last year and were joined from their breastbone to their hip bones. The babies shared several organs, including a liver and intestines, and had a 3-by-5-inch section on their lower stomach that was not covered by muscles or skin.

Doctors did not think that the conjoined twins would survive very long, warning the parents that if they did, they would need to undergo several painful operations and procedures.

After the twins were born, neonatologist Claire Schwendeman explained, tests were performed to figure out how many connections they had. A nine-hour surgery was performed shortly after, in which a team of surgeons separated the liver and intestines. The most difficult part of the surgery was separating a shared blood vessel in the liver.

The lead pediatric separation surgeon, Dr. Tom Renard, noted that the boys have nearly doubled in size since they were first born, and are thriving and alert. He explains that although infection is a continuing concern, the progress they have made is encouraging.

Renard told ABC News, “You can never predict what can happen but these little guys are definitely survivors.”

The family and parents of the twins are happy to have the boys one step closer to coming home, but admit that they are a bit worried. The twins’ father, David Ezell, told ABC News, “I’ll finally have my family together but we are about to face some serious challenges.”

He continued, “The really frightening life-or-death stuff is behind us but now we worry how about how we are going to pull the rest of it off.”

While at the rehab facility, the twins’ parents will learn to manage tubes in Owen and Emmett’s abdomens, until the twins can eat on their own.

Photo: Medical City Children’s Hospital