A Minnesota woman delivered conjoined twin girls in Colorado, though she was aware that only one infant would survive the post-birth surgery to separate them.
Amber McCullough delivered her girls, Hannah and Olivia, by cesarean section Wednesday at the Children’s Hospital of Colorado. The girls were joined through their abdomen and immediately underwent a 5-hour surgery to be separated.
WHAT ARE CONJOINED TWINS?
When the bodies of twins connect, they are called conjoined twins. Conjoined twins begin as a single fertilized egg. Sometimes a single egg divides in half 1 to 2 weeks after it’s fertilized, which creates a set of identical twins. Seattle Children’s Hospital states two theories for conjoined twins. The exact cause is yet to be discovered. One theory is the egg divides late and doesn’t divide completely. The other theory is the egg divides completely but then joins back together.
HOW RARE ARE CONJOINED TWINS?
Conjoined twins are rare and occur approximately once every 50,000 to 60,000 births, according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Parents who find out they are pregnant with conjoined twins have the option to continue their pregnancy, while others can decide to end it. Amber McCullough learned that she had conjoined twins from ultrasound images of Hannah and Olivia during her second trimester.
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CONJOINED TWIN?
According to The University of Maryland Medical Center, there are nearly a dozen different types of conjoined twins. Thoracopagus twins, one of the most common, are connected at the upper portion of the torso. They share a heart, which makes surgical separation very risky and nearly impossible. Omphalopagus twins may share a liver, gastrointestinal or genitourinary functions, but rarely share a heart. These conjoined twins are connected from the breastbone to waist and make up about 33 percent of cases. The rarest type, craniophagus twins, are joined at the cranium or head. They make up only 2 percent of conjoined twins.
WHY ONLY ONE DAUGHTER SURVIVED
Out of the two girls, it was Olivia who didn’t survive. The twins shared an abdomen, liver and intestinal tract. They had separate hearts and kidneys. Doctors stated Olivia only had a single ventricle in her heart and was missing valves. Hannah is in critical but stable condition, Children’s Hospital Colorado spokeswoman Elizabeth Whitehead said.
“I am determined not only to do all we can to keep her [Hannah] alive but also to ensure she is happy and as comfortable as possible,” McCullough wrote on Facebook. “That being said, naturally there will be some uncomfortable parts of this journey in which case we will also lean on the doctors to manage her pain.”
