Formerly conjoined, fifteen month old  twins, Adeline and Knatalye Mata, have been happily settling into their Littlefield home. They spent the first fourteen months of their lives in Houston where their family moved for their medical care. Now the twin’s medical care is being transferred from Houston to West Texas.

Dr. Darrell Cass, pediatrician at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston and co-director for Texas Children’s fetal center, was the lead surgeon on the 26 hour surgery which separated Adeline and Knatalye in February. He has been helping the Mata family from even before the twins’ birth. After spending the last sixteen months overseeing the girls’ care, Cass says he plans to, “be their doctor and friend forever.”

Cass explained that conjoined infants are only born in the United States once every year or so. 

“It’s a very rare problem, it’s a very difficult problem and the survival rate is very low,” Cass said. “The Mata twins were a unique and rare type of malformation, where they were connected so intimately for a long  distance of their body–from the top of their chest to the bottom of their body. So they were a rare type of a very rare problem.”

After many medical check-ups, the twins and their family were given clearance to return home to Littlefield in early July. 

“That’s less than five months after this large, complicated surgery. That is way faster than any of us would have dreamed,” Cass said. 

Elysse Mata said it feels incredible to be back in her own home with her family. She said she thinks the girls can sense they are at home for good too, they seem happier. 

While the girls are happy to be home, they require an enormous amount of attention and support. Nurses are in the Mata home 24 hours a day, seven days a week providing care for Adeline and 40 hours a week caring for Knatalye. The nurses from Epic Health Services’ Lubbock office have been briefed by the twin’s Houston medical staff to ensure no details are missed.

Sandra Rodriguez, Regional Nursing Director for Epic West Offices, oversees the twins’ care. 

Rodriguez explained that for Adeline’s care her team aims to, “provide significant respiratory support that includes tracheostomy, a ventilator,  and frequent respiratory treatments.”

Knatalye requires less support than her sister, but both girls need help with the tubes connected to their stomachs for feeding. 

“Our goal is to provide that sense of normalcy, not just for the child, but also for the parents, so that (Eric and Elysse Mata) can be a parents for their child who doesn’t require medical needs,” Rodriguez said. 

The Mata family is very grateful for their in-home care.

“Having this kind of care is amazing, I don’t know what we’d do without it, it’d be tough,” Elysse Mata said. 

The twins have a few more surgeries ahead of them. For the first of those surgeries, they will return to Texas Children’s Hospital this summer to have a procedure done on their Achilles tendons. 

Overall, their medical staff is in awe of their progress.

“Basically, they’re both doing great, we couldn’t ask for anything better,”  Dr. Cass said.