Conjoined twins Annie and Issie Bateson are like “typical sisters” and are thriving since the operation to separate them, it is reported.
Hannah and Dan Bateson, from County Antrim, Northern Ireland, discovered their daughters were conjoined twins in a 12-week scan and they were born safely last year.
The odds of having conjoined twins is just one in 2.5 million and the family now see them as “miracles”.
They were joined from the chest to the pelvis and shared a bladder, bowel and a fused leg but crucially had separate hearts.
Now mum Hannah has said that they still like to keep close together despite having a full room to play in at their home.
“Don't get me wrong, they're typical sisters," she continued, reported the Mail. "One minute they are waving and clapping their hands at each other, the next they're fighting and bickering.”
Born in March last year, they are among the few twins that have successfully undergone separation surgery.
The two girls, who have a leg each, have adapted well since being separated and have developed their own personalities.
“'Issie's found her voice, she's babbling — a real chatterbox, while Annie is more of a silent rascal. She's the adventurer who will just disappear silently behind the television or sofa. There are lots of unknowns ahead, but for now we're still riding the high of them being alive, surviving birth and surgery," reportedly said Hannah.
The couple got married in 2016 and were using the fertility drug Clomid when Hannah became pregnant.
She told of the fear when they heard after the 12-week scan that the babies might be monochorionic monoamniotic (MCMA) which means they have not only the same placenta but also share the amniotic sac.
And then it was found at another scan at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast that the twins were conjoined.
"I don't even know if we really processed the information. I had done all this research for MCMA twins, which was a big enough thing — then we learn they're conjoined and there was so little information. I found that tough," said Hannah.
But fortunately both of the children had separate hearts which is crucial in being able to separate them.
Hannah was referred to London’s University College Hospital, where the babies were delivered by a specialist team.
From there, they were transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital, the leading specialist hospital in Europe for separating conjoined twins, where the operation took place this week.
"Annie and Issie have been separated. It was a very long day, their surgery lasted until the early hours of Tuesday morning but our wee girlies did so well," the parents said at the time after the successful operation.
"There is a long recovery in front of them and we expect there to be some bumps along the way but they are strong wee ladies and are being well cared for."
Since then as each month goes by the parents are seeing the children develop and they will soon be fitted with braces for a prosthetic leg to help stabilise their bodies.
Hannah has set up a crowdfunding page to help the family pay for the costs involved of bringing up the twins.
“Long term the girls will need a lot of complex care and support and we want to raise funds to meet all these needs. They have fought so hard to be here and we want to provide for them as much as we can,” she wrote.
