Together Patty Doyle and Lisa Concelacion have decades of nursing experience. Still, neither had seen anything like the Aguirre brothers, the world-famous conjoined twins who were successfully separated after four surgeries in 2003 and 2004 at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore.

But soon, the two Bronx residents were among a large team of primary caregivers for the most famous patients in the universe.

Because Carl and Clarence’s medical situation was so complicated, the surgeons were more involved in their post-operative care than usual and they changed the bandages on the boys themselves. But working with the brothers was still challenging. “Everything you learn in school comes into play,” Doyle said. The nurses were responsible for neurological checks, testing operative sight, regularly moving their extremities and checking their motor skills.

It wasn’t hard for the two to become attached to the two boys. Doyle said the playful brothers were “a riot to watch.” Concelacion, who lives just around the block from the Children’s Hospital, laughed as she demonstrated how the boys would fight by throwing their arms up over their shoulders.

“They act like typical toddlers,” said Doyle, a resident of Throgs Neck But she added that “they had a very special bond and were very protective of one another.”

“When you stuck one of them [with a needle], they both cried,” she said.

Despite the rarity of the boys’ condition and the fact that no hospital in New York had ever even attempted to separate twins joined at the head, the nurses said they were confident the Aguirre twins would pull through.

“I felt strongly that they would recover,” said Concelacion. “Everyone thought they would make it.”

Doyle said she was “in awe of” Dr. David Staffenberg, chief of Pediatric Plastic Surgery  and Dr. James Goodrich, director of Pediatric Neurosurgery.

Dr. Goodrich returned the compliment.

”Our biggest concern in dealing with the twins post-op was care of their heads which now lacked a skull covering,” he said in an e-mail. “Through all of this period, the care was superb. [There was] meticulous attention to the details of handling them. In addition, close attention to their medical and postoperative needs was key — how to position them in bed, managing their airways along with a host of other issues.

After the final surgery, Doyle got the news that the separation was complete and apparently successful while she was home watching the news on TV.

“I flipped the news on and they were right there, separated!” Doyle said. “It was an honor to be a part of it.”