Miracle twins

July issue

John McCombe

Two tiny battlers, who have had to fight for their lives.

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Two tiny babies from Rangiora battle Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome and fight for their lives.

When John and Amy Crowe learnt something was terribly wrong with Amy's pregnancy, they did everything they could to save their unborn daughters. They went to hell, and Australia, and back. Kim Newth tells their story.

"Miracle babies." That's what Rangiora couple John and Amy Crowe call their identical baby girls, Kelly and Emma.

Just before Christmas last year, five months into her pregnancy, Amy was told her babies had developed a rare complication called Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS). Untreated, few twins survive, and even getting the right treatment offers no guarantee.

December 2008 will be burnt forever into the memories of the Crowes. Three days before Christmas, they received the worst possible news: their twin babies' lives were at risk.

Until then - apart from the initial surprise of finding out Amy was carrying twins - the pregnancy had been routine. But a 19-week scan at Southern Cross Hospital revealed a possible problem and they were immediately referred to Christchurch Women's Hospital.

"We saw a doctor there and that's when she said: 'Your babies have got Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome. If you do nothing, they'll both die, or there's surgery that can be done, but it's in Australia.' Of course, we decided to have the surgery, and then we were told we had to be in Australia - Mater Mothers' Hospital in Brisbane - within 24 hours," Amy says.

Neither she nor John had passports, so these had to be processed under urgency. Their three-year-old daughter, Makayla, was left in the care of grandparents.

"Poor Makayla didn't understand we were going away. It was very hard, but we didn't have time to think. It was just go, go," Amy recalls.

The twins, sharing a placenta, had developed an imbalance in blood flow between them. In effect, one baby was receiving too much blood through the placenta, while the other was receiving too little. TTTS also results in the amniotic fluid around one baby drying up, while the other baby ends up with too much.

In the Crowes' case, baby Kelly was becoming "shrink-wrapped in her own balloon", while baby Emma was floating in an ocean of fluid.

"They were not sharing equally between them," Amy says. "We were also told Kelly had no stomach or bladder formed at that stage, whereas Emma had. It was frightening."

*Read more in the July issue*

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