When North Carolina doctors told expectant parents Heather and Jason Kroeger that their twins would be conjoined, they knew that despite the high risk of death and complications such a birth would bring, they would keep their babies.
In fact, doctors advised the parents “several times” to consider terminating the pregnancy, as about half of conjoined twins are born stillborn, and another 35 percent of those born alive die within 24 hours. The overall survival rate of conjoined twins is somewhere between 5 percent and 25 percent
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However, the expecting parents would not consider an abortion. “To us, it wasn’t an option,” Jason told Fox19.
Defying the odds, Elijah and Isaac Kroeger were born on September 5. Because of their unique anatomy, it would be impossible to separate the twins while preserving their quality of life.
Before the birth, the family of seven, which includes five siblings ages 17 to 4, was advised to travel 421 miles to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, as their local hospital was not equipped for the specialized birth procedure to come.
Friends and family organized a GoFundMe crowdsourcing page to help finance their journey and help pay for medical expenses. As of press time, the GoFundMe had raised over $17,000 in 26 days.
On Friday, the healthy twins underwent surgery and are now resting and still healthy. They are even showing signs of alertness, like “hiccups, grins, eyes following voices and even cries when they don’t appreciate the medical team caring for them,” according to the family’s GoFundMe page.
Heather remains in Cincinnati while Jason travels back and forth to his North Carolina home to work and be with the older children in school.
