Alex and Angel Mendoza, who were living as conjoined twins for five months, were finally given a separate entity by the surgeons at Phoenix Children's Hospital.

It took the surgeons 18 hours to separate the twins. Perhaps for the first time in their lives the twins lay on separate beds in the hospital. The twin boys were joined from just below their sternums down to their pelvises. The twins also had a shared liver which made the surgery more complicated. It involved 19 medical professionals to complete the surgery.

Though at present the twins are doing fine but they still have several operations ahead of them.

The parents of the children were extremely relieved and happy that the babies survived the procedure.

"It's going to be interesting to see how they do being separated now because they're so used to being together and having somebody to slap in the face," laughed Frank, the mother of the twins.

Pediatric surgeon Stuart Lacey said surgeons also had to monitor and ensure that both the babies were carrying out bodily functions as their blood supply was also shared. He gave credit for the success of the operation to the radiologists' who had done intense study of 3-D images of the boys. These images ensured the surgeons that the babies could carry their own weight separately.