Homecoming: Maliyah, Kendra leave hospital after 86 days

Twins Kendra and Maliyah Herrin left Primary Children's Medical Center Sunday afternoon, each cradled in the arms of a parent.

"Hey, everybody," Maliyah said, "it's us!"

"Us" is very different from the little girls who entered the hospital June 23. The girls, 4, were born joined mid-torso and shared several organs and a pelvis. Each has one leg. On Sunday, they were anxious to get home after 86 days in the hospital, including preparation for and recovery from the grueling 26-hour surgery that started Aug. 7 to separate them.

"We've been dreaming of this day for a long time," said a smiling Jake Herrin, the girls' father, as he hugged his wife, Erin, during a press conference prior to loading the girls in the family van for the short trip home to North Salt Lake.

"This is a day we've been waiting for for the last four to five years," he said. "Just to have them separated and safe."

Neighbors and family had planned a "huge welcome home party for them," said Erin Herrin. "Then we'll get down to what we need to do for them."

Monday, Maliyah will start dialysis at University Hospital as an outpatient. She needs the procedure, which takes a half day three times a week, because when they were joined both of them used a single kidney, which was Kendra's. Maliyah will have a kidney transplant in a few months, most likely donated by her mother. But she still has a lot of healing to do before she can tolerate a transplant, Jake Herrin said.

A nurse braided their hair and put it in pigtails as they waited for time to leave Sunday. Kendra chattered about going home. Maliyah seemed a little more apprehensive, their parents said. But Erin Herrin said they're looking forward to the family being together at home, where she thinks "they will want to do more. It will coax them to move around."

At home, the Herrins will take over most of the caregiving tasks, with some help from a home health agency as needed and from volunteers from the family and neighborhood. The girls will also make weekly visits back to Primary Children's for a while. And they go home with a lot of medical equipment. Maliyah still needs a feeding tube because she has no appetite — although they can coax her with the cheese that goes on nachos. The threat of a feeding tube is enough to keep Kendra eating, their dad joked.