$ Doctors gave these conjoined twins 24 hours to live. But something unbelievable happened

 

 Doctors never thought Chelsea and Niktori’s twins had a fighting chance. In fact, they advised the couple to terminate the pregnancy when they realized the girls were conjoined. But when Chelsea delivered a healthy pair of girls, they defied the odds and they continued to do just that.

In June 2016, Chelsea found out she was pregnant with twins. She and her husband, Nick, were no strangers to Parenthood. In fact, they already had a son, Jason, whose third birthday they celebrate a few days after finding out the news. But five weeks into Chelsea’s pregnancy, she started to get cramps. Her doctor performed an ultrasound and told a 22 yearold mum of one that she was having a miscarriage. I left in tears, she wrote on her GoFundMe page. With more analysis, doctors determined that Chelsea’s unborn babies had landed too close to her cervix, which would cause the pregnancy to end. I waited for a miscarriage, she wrote. But by the time she hit eight weeks, it still hadn’t happened.

Now back to the story. So Chelsea traveled to a new clinic, where a second ultrasound revealed the unexpected a heartbeat. I cried in excitement and told Atek I was crying because I was happy, she wrote. The 22 yearold’s joy distracted her enough that she didn’t pay much attention to the babies on the screen. When a doctor came in and began asking Chelsea a question, she wrote that she knew something was wrong. After the inquiry, the doctor let the mom to be note that the twins in her room were conjoined. It was a blur after that, Chelsea wrote to the appointment one in somewhere between 49 and 1890. Births result in conjoined twins. Although the phenomenon inexplicably occurs more commonly in Africa and Southwest Asia, about 50% of all conjoined babies arrive stillborn, while one third pass away in under 24 hours of birth.

I felt that if they were still fighting and wanted to be here, that I should still fight for them as well.

They were my everything.

At that point, Chelsea’s doctor told her she shouldn’t have to worry about either scenario, though. You’ll miss Carrie soon, she recalled him saying. After that, the 22 year old once again sought another opinion. She saw a doctor who provided her with multiple options, including terminating the pregnancy.

The very, very beginning, we thought abortion would be the best option. No one wants to carry their kids for nine months just to have them die. We didn’t know. We stuck with our gut, and here we are.

Fortunately, a surgeon consulted with the expectant mom and had a different point of view. According to them, her babies had an up to 30% chance of surviving. There was one minor issue, though. The surgeon worked at a children’s hospital in Texas. The medical center was unfortunately a 25 hours drive from the family’s home in Blackfoot, Idaho. So are the tourists packed up and moved to Houston to be closer to the facility that could help their children. The couple knew their time in Texas wouldn’t be brief either. To begin with, Chelsea would be delivering their babies in the Lone Star State, but they would all then have to stay close to the hospital afterwards, since the babies would need surgery to separate them first. Though, Chelsea needed to have the twins, she admitted she was extremely anxious her whole pregnancy, according to The Mirror. Even her preplanned Csection made her nervous. Knowing the date they’d be delivered was extremely hard, she said. When that day arrived on January 30, 2017, Chelsea went into labor and reported that it was bad, but the end result brought her joy, she said. They did the procedure and it felt really weird, but when the twins were heroes, extremely happy, she recalled.

The conjoined twins, girls named Carter and Kelly, were amazing, according to their mother. Chelsea did, however, have a bit of trepidation when holding them for the first time. I was nervous because they were so fragile to me, she said. And the twins weren’t just fragile. Their bodies were intricately intertwined, too. Carter and Kelly’s torsos came together at the abdomen, so the sisters had just one pair of legs. From the waist down. They shared a single set of organs.

This part is Cali. This part is Carter. Their blood supply clashes together like two ways into one body. They have separate hearts, separate stomachs, separate heads.

Of course, in spite of their unique appearance, though, doctors gave Chelsea a Nixon shocking news.

The girls have a much better life expectancy than if they had been separated developmentally. They’re meeting all of their cognitive milestones. They’re meeting all of their social milestones. Just keeping up and figuring out how to get around. It’s going to be the biggest thing holding them back.

Instead, the family eventually packed up their things in Texas. They then drove home to Idaho with their new babies in town, with no plans to return to the hospital.

Me as a mother, I can’t separate them.

What parent doesn’t want their kids to be happy?

I want them to realize that even though they are together, that they can do things that other people can do everyday tasks.

Such as car rides that were monumental for the new parents, according to the Houston Chronicle. After all, the baby’s situation was precarious. Although they’d survived birth and were deemed healthy by doctors, they still might not survive the early days. That type of pressure, however, meant that life as parents of the conjoined twins was an extreme adjustment, Chelsea told The Mirror. On top of that, everything from dressing the girls to driving them around required custom made supply, she said. But the Taurus family of five was surrounded by a community who was rooting for them. Everyone in our hometown is supportive and knows our story. We get some people who stare and we get some people who say they’ve been following our journey, Chelsea explained. And as Carter and Cali approached their second birthday in 2019, they continue to grow into happy, healthy toddlers.