Against-the-odds twins 'finally home'
TWIN babies Logan and Louie Stevenson, who battled against the odds to overcome a near-fatal syndrome before their premature birth, have finally been allowed home after weeks in the special care baby unit.
TWIN babies Logan and Louie Stevenson, who battled against the odds to overcome a near-fatal syndrome before their premature birth, have finally been allowed home after weeks in the special care baby unit. The one-month-old boys faced a one-in-three chance of death or disability after they were diagnosed, before they were born, with twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. To complicate matters, their mother, Lucy, had to be medevaced to Swansea after going into labour just 27 weeks into her pregnancy. The boys were eventually delivered at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital by Caesarean six weeks later - more than a month before their due date.
After a lifetime connected to tubes and wires in hospital and still weeks before they should have been born, the twins were released and able to visit their St Peter Port home for the first time on Friday.
They had been delivered underweight and were not expected home before their 6 October due date.
'Then the ward doctor said: ?How would you like the boys home on Friday?? And here we are,' said Mrs Stevenson, 33.
She said the boys owed their lives to the Medical Specialist Group's Frank Hopkins, who diagnosed their condition while she was pregnant.
Mrs Stevenson subsequently underwent a type of treatment that, although balanced with a risk of miscarriage, could allow both babies to survive without handicaps.
The newly qualified pre-school teacher flew to London with husband Gary, 33, a contracts manager for Geomarine, for the treatment. And on Liberation Day, at King's College training hospital, she was operated on in front of about 20 trainee doctors by star of the BBC television show, Life Before Birth, Professor Kypros Nicolaides.
A laser attached to a camera cut a shared link between the boys and the placenta, allowing sustenance to pass to them through only individual connection.
But the successful operation did not mark the end of the ordeal.
About 10 weeks later, Mrs Stevenson entered the early stages of labour. Because it was so premature, she was medevaced to Singleton Hospital in Swansea, where she was given drugs to stop the contractions.
About five weeks after her treatment, she was readmitted to the PEH. At 33 weeks it was decided to deliver the premature boys by Caesarean. They started screaming on delivery, which to their mother was a sign that they had beaten the odds. 'When they came out of my tummy, I was overwhelmed, after all the problems we've had,' said Mrs Stevenson. 'I was really amazed - gobsmacked.'
Dr Hopkins said: 'Ten years ago, the chances of those babies surviving 'twin-to-twin transfusion' were almost zero. I would have given them a 1% survival chance then.
'It is a spectacular success story.
'But if it happened to someone else tomorrow, they would not be guaranteed to end up with such a fantastic result.'
The boys spent nine days inside incubators at the Special Care Baby Unit. Louie currently weighs 5.1lbs and Logan 5.7lbs.
The twins are the new baby brothers of Jack, 9, and six-year-old Mikey, who spent much of the summer holidays with family and friends while their parents were away.
b>Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome explained...
THE SYNDROME:
Twins share a placenta and blood flow is usually equal between them. Twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) happens when the blood flow is uneven and passes from one twin (the donor) to the other (the recipient). The risk of death or damage to the twins is very high.
TREATMENT OPTIONS:
Aside from the invasive technique undergone by Mrs Stevenson, other options include the repeated removal of excessive amniotic fluid or the selective ending of one twin's life. The review of trials found there was not enough evidence to show the best way to help save one or both of the twins. More research is needed.
(Source: NHS online library)
