The miracle twins who survived a rare condition while in their mother's womb are now home with their parents.
Dana Salmonese, 30, learned that she was having twins just after New Year's day. Everything was doing fine until one night when she had to wake up due to heavy bleeding. She said that she thought she had lost the twins. It was the scariest moment of her life, she added.
Her husband, Joe, then rushed her to the hospital near Huntington, New York. Sonogram results showed that the babies have healthy heartbeats; however, the mom had a subchorionic hematoma. She then had to go on bed rest.
That Wasn't the Worst Part
She was 17 weeks into her pregnancy when she started feeling much better and eventually moved around with no bleeding episodes. She thought that finally, she would be able to have a normal pregnancy from that time forward. But the worst has not yet come.
Suddenly, the couple was looking at the possibility of a rare condition that can be life-threatening if left untreated—often, the survival rate is 10 to 20 percent. One of twins looked like he didn't have much room and wasn't moving, Dana said, describing what she saw on the monitor.
The other one, on the other hand, had all the room and was floating and "kicking all over". But strangely enough, she could not feel it. According to the doctors, her twins likely have a twin to twin transfusion syndrome. TTTS is a condition in which genetically identical babies share the same placenta.
Sharing the same placenta meant that the babies also share connecting blood vessels. With TTTS, blood flow is unbalanced and often leads to one of the other babies donating blood.
A Scary Moment for a Mother-to-Be
An appointment with Dr. Martin Chavez, director of maternal-fetal medicine at NYU Winthrop Hospital, was immediately made. Dana then realized how serious the situation is and felt very scared. The next day, Dr. Chavez performed a procedure called laser photocoagulation. The procedure involved closing the abnormal blood connection using a laser to allow the pregnancy to continue as far along and safely as possible, PEOPLE noted.
At 31 weeks of pregnancy, the twins were born by cesarean delivery. Dana said she didn't want to deliver them yet, but one of the twins was not getting any blood flow from the placenta. And so, on June 5, 2020, Vinny arrived and weighed 4 lbs while Pauly was born at 2 lbs and 9 oz. The twins were then taken to the NICU.
"Our miracle babies"
The babies did well while spending almost three months in the NICU and despite all the challenges the family had to go through, including the stress and threat of the pandemic. The miracle twins are now home.
They had a 10 percent chance of survival, she told TODAY, and "they did it."
A GoFundMe has been organized to help with the medical bills and therapy of the twins. Dana said she will also donate 10 percent of the proceeds to the Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome Foundation.
