With December just ending and the New Year beginning, I wanted to start off writing about Twin-to-Twin Transfusion. For everyone who doesn’t know what Twin-to-Twin Transfusion is, it is a rare disease of the placenta that develops during pregnancy (and only during the pregnancy) with identical twins. It happens to one in 300,000 sets of twins. It's a rare disease and an experience that my twin and I shared. Twins share a placenta and blood circulation. However, in this process one baby is the recipient and gets more blood than the other (me). This causes both twins to be abnormal sizes, one too small, and one bigger than it should be at that particular time in the pregnancy. This can cause the babies to be born prematurely which is fatal in most cases. Most babies are not fully grown. In many cases, one if not both babies die.
My mom was diagnosed with Chronic TTTS early during the 18th week of her pregnancy with my twin sister and myself. She had no idea what it was when she was diagnosed, along with many other women who are also diagnosed. Doctors had told my parents to terminate the pregnancy because the odds of beating this disease are very low. The death rate for the babies is 80 percent. She was carefully monitored during the remainder of her pregnancy. She was on full bed rest and only allowed to get up to go to the doctor's for ultrasounds twice a week to make sure we were still alive. After two weeks in the hospital she had an emergency C-section on Aug. 5, 1996 because they could not detect any heartbeats. She gave birth to my twin sister, Molly, and I at 30 weeks, ten weeks early. I was fortunate enough to be born with no complications. The doctors called it a miracle, but Molly was born not breathing; however, she pulled her breathing tube out on her own on her way up to the neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU), another miracle. Our parents didn’t even get to hold us. I was in the NICU for seven weeks while Molly stayed for eight weeks.
Nineteen years later, we are living healthy, productive lives. Molly, born not breathing, is now a recording artist chasing her dream while I am a college athlete. Thanks to our parents and the doctors and NICU nurses at Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital in Boston, MA, we were given a chance to live healthy lives.
The purpose of this article is to raise awareness for Twin-to-Twin transfusion. If diagnosed early enough there is a chance for survival. The Today Show recently featured a mother who lost her twins to this disease. A mother who had twins who survived was featured as well. She mentioned that she had no idea what TTTS was until she was diagnosed, so if only one person becomes aware that could save two babies' lives. I am only now grasping the idea of just how lucky and blessed we are to have been given a chance at life. As a survivor, I feel an obligation and a connection to those who are going through what my parents went through; so therefore, I want to make people aware of the little known disease of TTTS.
For more information, visit tttsfoundation.org.
