Over 13 years after getting separate, formerly conjoined twin sisters Maria de Jesus and Maria Teresa Alvarez, also known as the ‘Las Dos Marias’, gave a visit at the Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA. They brought cheer to the doctors and nurses who were behind their separation.

As per the UCLA website, the identical twin sisters were just a year old when they went under a complicate, complex and draining 23-hour long surgery for separation. They were born conjoined at the skull and membrane that shields and protects the brain.

Blood vessels that supply essential oxygen to the brain were also tangled between the girls. They underwent a dangerous operation and 40 people worked hard to keep the girls alive.

Now, the 14-year-old girls revisited the hospital center on Monday to meet both staff and pediatric patients as the holiday season is going on.

The director of pediatric neurosurgery at the time of the surgery of the twin girls, Dr. Jorge Lazareff, said that a community worked together to keep the twins alive and there are many, who still ask about the girls’ whereabouts and health.

Lazareff said, “I know everybody who has been involved and they frequently ask about them. They have not been forgotten”.

The twins, originally belonged to Guatemala, survived the surgery, but when they came back home, Maria Teresa Alvarez, or ‘Teresita’ suffered from meningitis. After contracting the virus, the girl became deathly ill and went back to the United States where they could stay nearby the advanced medical community that was behind their separation.