'Miracle twins' start school after surviving radical surgery in mum's womb
A pair of miracle twins have defied the odds to start school together – after surviving radical laser surgery in the womb.
Lily and Darcy Ellis had just a five per cent chance of survival from a rare condition threatening to starve them of oxygen before they were born.
But they beat the odds after doctors carried out a pioneering operation on their mother Rachel Ellis in Walesat just 18 weeks pregnant.
And now the smiling four-year-old twins have celebrated their first day at school, looking proud in their identical uniforms.
“They are brilliant – they wanted to stay. The teacher still doesn’t know who is who,” mum Rachel said.
The inseparable twins are a picture of health – and love nothing more than bouncing up and down on the trampoline in their garden wearing matching skirts.
“They are so close,” Rachel, 30, added.
“Wherever one goes, the other follows, it’s wonderful to see them together and to see that they are so close to each other.
“I feel grateful that they are here every day – it is incredible. They are two little miracles.”
Doctors feared the worst
The twins were diagnosed as having twin to twin transfusion syndrome, a disease of the placenta that affects identical twin pregnancies.
The disease affects the blood vessels in the shared placenta which connect the umbilical cords and circulations of the twins.
She had the radical operation at Fetal Medicine Unit at St Michael’s Hospital in Bristol – watching the whole procedure on a screen because she was only under a local anesthetic.
Doctors inserted a camera and fibre optic laser down a tiny endoscope into her womb, using it to seal off some of the shared blood vessels to ensure the girls received a more equal supply of blood.
Just hours after the surgery, doctors feared the worst when at 19 weeks Mrs Ellis’s waters broke but remarkably the amniotic sacs re-sealed and the twins were born healthy at 37 weeks
Rachel was warned they could be born disabled but they were born healthy with Lily weighing in at 7lb 4oz (3.29kg) and Darcy 7lb 3oz (3.26kg).
The twins went on to become little stars with an appearance on BBC hospital drama Casualty.
The pair, from Port Talbot, South Wales, were full of smiles when they started at Ysgol Bae Baglan school near their home this week.
“I am so proud of them both and all they have achieved already in their short lives,” their mum said.
