Kaelyn and Reynard had been hoping for twins. So when the pregnancy ultrasound showed not one baby but two, they had even more reason to celebrate: their little family of three was going to be a party of five. But at 16 weeks, the identical twins, still in utero, were diagnosed with twin-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS): too much blood and amniotic fluid was going to just one baby.
“I was crying every day, thinking, ‘What decision do I have to make? I don’t want to do this to my body, I don’t want to do this to the babies. I don’t want the worst possibility,’” says Kaelyn.
Then Kaelyn’s maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Hartford HealthCare referred her to Connecticut Children’s Fetal Care Center, where fetal surgeon Timothy Crombleholme, MD, FACS, FAAP, is pioneering fetoscopic surgery as a way to treat high-risk pregnancies. Here, Kaelyn and Reynard learned that a healthy twin birth was no longer beyond imagination.
“For many of the conditions that we treat, in many parts of the country, mothers are just told there’s nothing that can be done and they’re not really given any options,” says Dr. Crombleholme. “But for many conditions, there are interventions. We can help.”
“My MFM said that without Dr. C and the Fetal Care Center, I would’ve had to go to Chicago or Florida. I researched all about Dr. Crombleholme online, and we knew he was the best,” says Kaelyn. “It made me think: Maybe me and these kids do have a chance.”
