SCARSDALE, N.Y. — One twin uses an iPad, plays video games, and dances to Michael Jackson tunes. The other has significant, possibly permanent, problems walking and talking.
The delicate separation 10 years ago of conjoined twins from the Philippines was not perfect, but the boys’ mother says their very survival is reason enough to celebrate the anniversary.
‘‘When they were born, the doctors at home told me, ‘You have to choose which one is to live,’ ’’ Arlene Aguirre said. ‘‘I said, ‘I cannot choose that.’ The doctors here did not ask me to choose.’’
The boys, who are 12, were born joined at the top of their heads, unable to sit up, stand straight, eat normally — or see each other.
Once their case was accepted by the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, leaving Carl and Clarence conjoined was not an option.
‘‘If they hadn’t come to us when they did, they would have just withered away and died,’’ said Dr. Robert Marion, the boys’ pediatrician, who was planning to be at the hospital Monday to mark the anniversary of the twin’s separation.