UPDATE: One-year-old twin boys Anias and Jadon McDonald are successfully separated after a 27-hour-long surgery.
Illinois mom Nicole McDonald spent months of her second pregnancy with her twin boys refusing her doctors who suggested she ‘terminate’ the pregnancy at every check-up. And despite all odds, she and husband Christian welcomed healthy twin boys into the world.
Ania and Jadon are not typical twins. In fact, only one in every 2.5 million births results in twins like Ania and Jadon, who are conjoined at the head and share a brain. Despite the hurdles, Nicole and Christian love their sons just as they are and don’t want to change a thing about them. “They’re so perfect. They’re beautiful, and they are so funny and so happy. “I could almost keep them like this,” Nicole said. “We like them the way they are,” added Christian.
However, together as a family, the McDonald’s have decided to risk everything in order to do what they believe is best for their sons. Through a long, high-risk surgery, they plan to separate them in order to give them a more normal life where they can sit up, crawl, sit in a stroller and go for walks outside, ride in a car without being carefully laid down on the minivan floor, wear a shirt, and maybe walk someday. “These boys, they’re raring to go,” Christian said. “They can’t stay like this any longer.”
“This is so hard,” Nicole said, “I’m not going to sugarcoat it.” The 20-hour surgery will attempt to separate the twins and the 2 inches of brain tissue that they share. “One or both twins can be neurologically challenged, or they can have a mental or physical handicap.
We know that is definitely a real possibility, but we’re still going to love our boys,” the 37-year-old father said. And if the boys survive the surgery and the delicate 72 hours after the operation, they face weeks and months in critical care and rehabilitation. “They go back to a 1-month-old,” said Dr. James Goodrich. “They have to learn to sit. They have to learn to roll. They have to learn to walk. They basically go through a yearlong period of a second infancy.”
Despite the long road ahead and all the hurdles they face, the McDonalds still think the surgery is the best option for their boys.
“There’s nothing harder than watching your child cry and not being able to pick them up. To hear them cry and react to it in a motherly way is something I’m really excited for,” Nicole said. “I can’t wait to see them as two separate little boys,” Christian added. “That’s what excites me the most. I really just want to know my boys.”
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[Featured image: Nicole McDonald]
Doctors Successfully Separate Twins Conjoined At The Head In 27 Hour Surgery is an article from: LifeDaily