Hannah and Dan, who had just become parents, told their story of the worry and faith that they had throughout the time that their kids were conjoined from the chest to the pelvis when they were born.
The kids have distinct hearts but share a bladder, colon, and a fused limb. They will need to undergo surgery, where the physicians are optimistic that the separation of their organs will be successful.
Despite the fact that they had mentally prepared themselves for the worst, the parents said that the delivery of their children was a flawless experience at the moment it occurred.
Hannah and Dan discussed how, as new parents, they had very little knowledge about what conjoined twins were and how they were in for a surprise when they became parents to Annabelle and Isabelle, but they “hoped for the best.”
Hannah reflected back on the first few days of the pregnancy as she said, “We went for an early scan, and there was one heartbeat and then we received the huge surprise that it was twins, and that we had to visit the doctor at the local hospital.
Then, as we were looking at another scan, it suddenly occurred to us, and I said, “Are they conjoined?” he responded, “Yes, I believe they are.”
Hannah said that the infants had a strong will to survive, and it seemed like a miracle to everyone when they finally made it to 35 weeks gestation.
The lovely family of four has now returned to their home in county Antrim, where they are preparing for the conjoined twins to undergo a lifetime’s worth of surgical procedures. When Hannah was asked about her feelings, she replied “I believe a lot of it will only be revealed during surgery, we just have to have trust.”
Hannah remarked that the girls have a strong will to succeed. It’s going to be a very lengthy journey filled with a variety of obstacles for them both, and they’ll probably be having operations for the majority of their lives, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that their quality of life will be high and I believe that they will breeze through it!”