When Connecticut twins Teddy and Kiley Marzinotto were born in 2015, they were so small that their mother could slip her wedding ring around their arms.
Patch Connecticut reports the twins were born on April 9, 2015, a full trimester prematurely. But today, the Milford, Connecticut brother and sister are 2 years old and thriving.
Their mother Rosemarie Marzinotto recently published a book “100 Days” about their family’s journey with very premature twins.
According to the report, Marzinotto’s wife, Faye, was 23 ½ weeks pregnant with the twins when she experienced a condition called Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes that threatened the babies’ lives.
“Faye hadn’t been feeling well – and I chalked it up to pregnancy,” Rosemarie said. “But later in the middle of the night, Faye began to rupture – putting both her and the babies in an emergency situation.”
Doctors were able to delay the twins’ birth for seven more days, which gave them a chance to develop a little more. But on April 9, Teddy was born weighing 2 pounds, and his sister Kiley was born soon afterward weighing 1 pound 15 ounces, according to the report.
Their due date was July 16, Rosemarie said.
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Here’s more from the report:
Rose recounts one of the things she remembers was the ‘noise’ that accompanied them as they were rushed to the emergency delivery unit. With two teams of doctors, dozens of nurses, and lots of stress, she remembers, “It was surreal. Lots of clattering of instruments, instructions being given, just lots of noise. But once the babies were out and then immediately whisked off to the resuscitation room, it was silent. No noise. No movement. It was as if everyone just held their breath – waiting, waiting.”
When one of the doctors returned from the resuscitation room with news that both babies had been successfully intubated, the immediate level of panic decreased – but Faye and Rose both knew a long, hard journey was about to begin.
The twins spent 100 days in the hospital before they were able to go home. Rosemarie said it was a tumultuous time as the twins underwent multiple surgeries and their health fluctuated.
But today, she said Teddy and Kiley are doing well. Rosemarie described them as typical toddlers who are “into everything.” Medically, she said they are healthy.
More very early preemies are surviving outside the womb thanks to modern medical technology.
Last fall, a Chicago hospital saved a very premature infant who was born weighing 13 ounces. Eirianna spent four months at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago before growing well enough to go home in February of this year.
And earlier this summer, a Sacramento, California hospital released a little boy who was given a 5 percent chance of survival at birth. Lawrence, or “Leni” as his family likes to call him, was due on Sept. 7, but he actually was born 18 weeks earlier after just 22 weeks in the womb, the Blaze reported.
A Duke University study published in January found babies born at just 23 weeks of pregnancy are surviving outside the womb at a greater rate than ever before. Researchers examined 4,500 babies between 2000 and 2011 and found a “small but significant drop in fatalities for babies born between 23 and 37 weeks gestation,” as well as a decrease in premature babies manifesting with neurophysiological problems, the Daily Mail reported.
Research published in 2015 in the New England Journal of Medicine also found that 23 percent of premature infants are surviving birth as early as 22 weeks. However, the study also found that some hospitals are not giving babies treatment at this early age, despite talk about pushing back the standard viability line from 24 weeks to 23.
