LAST MINUTE TRAVEL DEALS

The last tissue connecting the girls was cut at 4:28 p.m., "for the first time, completely separating the two young twins", said Mayo Clinic spokesman Lee Aase.

Aase said Isabelle was moved to a separate table in the operating room where surgeons were reconstructing her abdomen and closing up the surgical wound. That process was expected to take a few hours. He did not give any specific information about Abbigail.

"The family is elated", Aase said, saying that parents Amy and Jesse Carlsen, of Fargo, N.D., were happy to now have two separate babies.

The two girls were born in November and spent their first five months looking eye to eye. They were joined at the diaphragm, pancreas and liver, and shared a common bile duct and part of an intestine.

Since February a Mayo Clinic team of 70 people had been caring for the girls and preparing for Friday's procedure. A team of 30 people, including 18 surgeons, participated in the tightly orchestrated operation, with specialists rotating in and out of the operating room as needed.

Aase said that after the girls' livers were separated, the medical team applauded, having completed one of the more complicated parts of the operation. The liver separation was difficult because of the way the organs were fused and because the circulatory structures inside the livers needed to be divided correctly.

"This is in the phase that is probably the most critical", Aase said. "All along, each of these operations individually is a serious operation. So I wouldn't want to minimize any of those, but this liver phase is the more complicated of the complicated."

Isabelle retained the common bile duct, and doctors were constructing a biliary structure for Abbigail.

In other good news, Aase said, doctors found there was enough intestinal tissue available for each girl, which was one of the unanswered questions prior to surgery.

Aase said the surgery went as planned. Nothing of a "serious realm" had occurred during the procedure, he said. Doctors had estimated there was a 90 percent to 95 percent chance that both girls would survive.

Donations or cards can be sent to: Town & Country Credit Union, 815 25th St. S., Fargo, N.D., 58103

For updates during the surgery: http://www.mayoclinic.org/carlsen-twins/

To read the Carlsens' journal or post a message to the family:

http://www.caringbridge.org/cb/inputSiteName.do?methodsearch&si eNa meabbybelle

Amy Forliti can be reached at aforliti(at)ap.org

LAST MINUTE TRAVEL DEALS

The last tissue connecting the girls was cut at 4:28 p.m., "for the first time, completely separating the two young twins", said Mayo Clinic spokesman Lee Aase.

Aase said Isabelle was moved to a separate table in the operating room where surgeons were reconstructing her abdomen and closing up the surgical wound. That process was expected to take a few hours. He did not give any specific information about Abbigail.

"The family is elated", Aase said, saying that parents Amy and Jesse Carlsen, of Fargo, N.D., were happy to now have two separate babies.

The two girls were born in November and spent their first five months looking eye to eye. They were joined at the diaphragm, pancreas and liver, and shared a common bile duct and part of an intestine.

Since February a Mayo Clinic team of 70 people had been caring for the girls and preparing for Friday's procedure. A team of 30 people, including 18 surgeons, participated in the tightly orchestrated operation, with specialists rotating in and out of the operating room as needed.

Aase said that after the girls' livers were separated, the medical team applauded, having completed one of the more complicated parts of the operation. The liver separation was difficult because of the way the organs were fused and because the circulatory structures inside the livers needed to be divided correctly.

"This is in the phase that is probably the most critical", Aase said. "All along, each of these operations individually is a serious operation. So I wouldn't want to minimize any of those, but this liver phase is the more complicated of the complicated."

Isabelle retained the common bile duct, and doctors were constructing a biliary structure for Abbigail.

In other good news, Aase said, doctors found there was enough intestinal tissue available for each girl, which was one of the unanswered questions prior to surgery.

Aase said the surgery went as planned. Nothing of a "serious realm" had occurred during the procedure, he said. Doctors had estimated there was a 90 percent to 95 percent chance that both girls would survive.

Donations or cards can be sent to: Town & Country Credit Union, 815 25th St. S., Fargo, N.D., 58103

For updates during the surgery: http://www.mayoclinic.org/carlsen-twins/

To read the Carlsens' journal or post a message to the family:

http://www.caringbridge.org/cb/inputSiteName.do?methodsearch&si eNa meabbybelle

Amy Forliti can be reached at aforliti(at)ap.org