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Rare surgery performed on unborn twins saves their lives
It's a state-of-the-art surgery, still considered experimental, and for one Wisconsin family it was a lifesaver. Doctors at Abbott Northwestern and Children's Hospital performed the surgery on two boys, while they were still in the womb. At only two days old, what little Gavin and Owen may lack in age, they don't in the journey and the impact they've already left on mom and dad. "We just took it as, we can either just mask this situation or we can take over the situation and take control of it and live life with no shoulda, woulda, coulda's, and that's kind of what we did, nothing was going to stop us from having them," said Jeff Cassellius of Roberts, Wisconsin. Jeff and his wife, Jeana, didn't even find out about their two little boys until Jeana was 19 weeks pregnant. She started bleeding and went to the emergency room in Hudson, Wisconsin. "This was my first pregnancy so I didn't know I was going to be this swollen and I didn't know, I had no idea anything was wrong," said Jeana Cassellius. One look at the boys and doctors found, they shared the placenta, which was fine, but they also shared blood vessels, which put the pregnancy in jeopardy. Doctors say surgery was the only option. "Without the surgery, without any therapy at all, the loss rate for both babies approaches 80-90 percent so they wouldn't be here holding their babies," said Dr. William Block. The boys suffered from Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome or T.T.T.S. What happens is one twin receives too much blood and the other too little through the blood vessels they share. At the 20th week of pregnancy doctors performed endoscopic surgery to laser the blood vessels. Doctors figured if they could stop the blood flow, they could save the pregnancy, which they did. "It's a great joy, this is the best goal that we're working for is to send mom and dad home with two healthy babies and they have a beautiful set of boys," said Dr. Block. "It's amazing, I don't know it's absolutely amazing their miracle babies," said Jeana Cassellius. Its the happiest day of my life, I feel like I won the Super Bowl," said Jeff Cassellius Doctors say each year Minnesota alone sees 50 T.T.T.S. cases.
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