One thing that is becoming common knowledge is how rare it is to see identical twins, the fact that they don’t fully split when their zygote becomes two embryos—are, it’s even rarer. For these two conjoined twins baby girls, in Philadelphia, their incredible predicament isn’t going to impair their lives at all…
Erin and Abby Delaney, beautiful baby girls were born in 2016 summertime, conjoined at the tops of their heads, this really made the separation really a complicated and difficult thing indeed!
Looking at these two it was apparent that to keep them joined in this fashion was really not an option for them, for their development and for their mental health too as they grow up.
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia took on the task of separating them from each other, the most complex procedure that the hospital has ever carried out before!
To do the surgery it took a surgical team for each girl and many hours of fast-paced procedures to stop either of them bleeding to death or to cause further complications.
With love, care, and incredible skills of the surgeons the two were separated without any problems, it was a success and they can now live separate lives.
Thier mom, Heather Delaney, said:
“They’re such happy, content little girls, for what they’ve gone through …They’ve never lived outside of hospital walls.”
Now that had all changed for the better, five months down the line and after surgery and the pair being home, they could grow physically and mentally and flourish in their own space, mom commented about how really well they have been both developing.
Mom also said:
“They’re not afraid of people …it’s amazing to see how brave they’ve been through all of it.”
For many of the first months after their birth, it was impossible to hold them separately, they could not learn to roll over even, let alone sit up and for their own safety, they were monitored constantly!
Eventually, Erin was sitting up on her own and Abby learned to roll over too, it was a very long path to where they are now but they followed it to completion and finally, they arrived safely!
These amazing girls are having a second chance at life, an awesome life, but they needed to undergo further surgeries. In July 2021, they had undergone surgeries to help reshape and fix their skulls.
The recovery went well for Abby, but Erin had a tougher time to recover completely.
Their mom has been updating their family and friends, also those interested in the life of the girls, through social media posts.
In September 2020, the family received yet another blow when the girls were diagnosed with autism.
”There is such a stigma around those who are autistic and it scares me for the girls’ future. They already have so much going on and to be autistic as well is just hard. I cried a lot when I got that phone call. I just want the diagnosis’ to stop. I know that it doesn’t change anything. I know that the girls are still who they are and we still love them just as much if not more than we did yesterday. But having yet another diagnosis is just disheartening,” Heather wrote.
In her latest post on her blog, Heather said that Abby is getting closer to walking every day and that Erin is ”walking upstairs, running around, and getting stronger every day.”
Erin Abby have been able to reach the milestones they have reached thanks to the immense love and support from their loving mom and dad.
Despite everything they have gone through, they are both thriving.
”We are so proud of the girls, and how far they have come, and where they are going. Not once have we wished things were different because we love our girls for just the way they are,” Heather says.