Kendra and Maliyah Herrin were four years old when they lay in separate beds for the first time. The beds were side by side in a Utah intensive care unit. One sister had the kidney they had shared since birth. The other would need dialysis until she was ready for another operation.
Their mother, Erin, was already planning to give Maliyah one of her own kidneys.
For four years, every step took two
Born in Utah in 2002, Kendra and Maliyah were joined at the abdomen and pelvis. They shared a liver, part of their intestine, a pelvis and one functioning kidney. They had two legs between them, and each sister controlled one. A step across the room took coordination from both girls.
Before surgery, the twins talked about things they wanted to do afterward. They wanted to sleep in bunk beds and ride bikes. Kendra had a particular bike in mind. She wanted a princess bike, and she wanted to go fast.
Their parents, Erin and Jake, talked with the girls about the operation. The family had years to consider what separation would mean, and the doctors had to plan for two different recoveries. The kidney was in Kendra’s body. Once the sisters were separated, Maliyah would lose access to it. Doctors waited until she was older and better able to undergo a transplant.
The operation lasted through the night
In August 2006, the girls were taken into surgery at Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City. The team had to divide shared organs, reconstruct each girl’s pelvis and close the surgical wounds. Each sister would keep the leg she had always controlled.
By late that evening, the twins had been physically separated. Hours of reconstruction still lay ahead. Maliyah was moved into intensive care the following morning. When the surgeons finished with Kendra, they put her bed next to her sister’s. The operation had lasted about 26 hours.
In September, family, friends and neighbors welcomed the girls home with balloons. There were purple ones for Kendra and yellow ones for Maliyah. The twins wanted to see their new beds. Soon Kendra was playing on the computer and Maliyah went out in a stroller. Both girls played with their little brothers.
Home still meant physical therapy, hospital visits and, for Maliyah, dialysis three times a week. The next operation was already part of the family’s plans.
Eight months later, their mother went into surgery too
On April 3, 2007, Erin donated her right kidney to Maliyah, who had just turned five. Erin went home first. Maliyah stayed in the hospital for further recovery and to give doctors time to adjust her medication. Later that month, she went home too.
The kidney worked for several years. When it eventually failed, Maliyah returned to dialysis. In an update in April 2018, the family described two years of waiting and repeated treatments. That May, Maliyah received a second kidney transplant. The family reported that the operation had gone better than they had expected.
The sisters had their own stories to tell
As children, both girls faced additional surgeries and learned ways to move independently. In 2010, a reporter documented Kendra practicing her balance on a new prosthetic leg. The same report showed Maliyah jumping on the trampoline at home. Each sister had her own way of getting around.
By 2019, they were high school seniors. When they spoke to the Deseret News, they talked about disability, inclusion and what it felt like when strangers took pictures without permission. They still remembered a man who photographed them at Disney World. The trip had been arranged through Make-A-Wish, and years later that encounter was still part of what they remembered about it.
Before the operation, people asked Kendra what she wanted to do after she and Maliyah were separated. The adults were thinking about dialysis, reconstruction and recovery. Kendra was thinking about a princess bike. She wanted to see how fast she could go.
