A pair of Canadian babies have set a record for being the most premature and lightest twins ever born.
Parents Shakina Rajendram and Kevin Nadarajah of Ajax, Ontario, 35 miles east of Toronto, were told by their doctor that their twins weren’t “viable”.
“Even in that moment, as I was hearing those words come out of the doctor’s mouth, I could still feel the babies very much alive within me,” Ms Rajendram told CNN. “And so for me, I just wasn’t able to comprehend how babies who felt very much alive within me could not be viable.”
But she understood that she wouldn’t be able to carry to term. She had started to bleed and the doctor said that their birth was imminent. The parents were told that while they could hold the babies, they would be too premature to be resuscitated.
Mr Nadarajah, 37, and Ms Rajendram, 35, had conceived a child previously but it had been ectopic, meaning it was outside of the uterus, and the pregnancy had ended after a number of months.
In a final attempt to save their children, they conducted some research, learning that they – at 21 weeks and five days – would have to remain in the womb for at least another 36 hours to have any chance at all.
The mother had to visit a speciality hospital to treat the condition, which is called micro-preemies.
Babies born before 37 weeks may have breathing and digestive problems as well as brain bleeds, according to the CDC. Developmental problems can last for the rest of their lives.
Micro-preemies can lead to serious problems for those born before 26 weeks and who weigh less than 26 ounces.
Babies born at 22 weeks who get active treatment have a survival rate of 25 to 50 per cent, a 2019 study states.
The parents asked to be transferred to Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, one of few institutions in all of North America which resuscitates and actively cares for those born at 22 weeks.
At around 1am on 4 March last year, at 22 weeks, Adiah Laelynn Nadarajah was born weighing 12 ounces, and her brother Adrial Luka Nadarajah was born 23 minutes later, weighing almost 15 ounces.
They are the most premature and lightest twins ever born, according to Guinness World Records.
The previous record holder was the Ewoldt twins of Iowa, born at 22 weeks and one day.
“They were perfect in every sense to us,” Ms Rajendram told CNN. “They were born smaller than the palm of our hands. People still don’t believe us when we tell them.”
Had they been born just an hour earlier, medical intervention may not have been possible.
Chief Pediatrician at Mount Sinai, Dr Prakesh Shah, told CNN that he told the parents that it would be difficult to keep the twins breathing and even harder to feed them.
CNN noted that the twins weighed just over the weight of a can of soda and that their organs were visible “through translucent skin”.
A needle less than two millimetres in diameter was used to feed them.
Adiah could leave the hospital after 161 days, while Adrial could leave six days later. Adrial has been hospitalised three times since. Both of them have checks and therapy several times each month.
Dr Shah told CNN that “the one thing that really surprised me” was that “when both of them were ready to go home, both of them went home without oxygen, no feeding tube, nothing, they just went home. They were feeding on their own and maintaining their oxygen”.
Ms Rajendram said, “we feel it’s very important to highlight that contrary to what was expected of them, our babies are happy, healthy, active babies who are breathing and feeding on their own, rolling over, babbling all the time, growing well, playing, and enjoying life as babies”.
Dr Shah said improvements in the use of life-sustaining technology helped the care team to keep the babies alive.
“Even five years ago, we would not have gone for it, if it was not for the better help we can now provide,” he told CNN. “It’s allowing us to sustain these babies, helping keep oxygen in their bodies, the role of carbon dioxide, without causing lung injury.”
