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DiversityNursing Blog

Formerly Conjoined Twins Celebrate First Birthday

Posted by Erica Bettencourt

Wed, Apr 15, 2015 @ 02:36 PM

By SYDNEY LUPKIN

http://abcnews.go.com 

Formerly conjoined twins Knatalye Hope and Adeline Faith Mata celebrated their first birthday with a "Frozen"-themed party at the hospital.

A team at Texas Children's Hospital separated the girls on Feb. 17 in a 26-hour surgery. They are still in the pediatric intensive care unit and have each had a few surgeries since the separation, but their mother, Elysse Mata, decorated their room with snowflakes and balloons.

"It's been a year," Mata said, surrounded by presents as the hospital filmed her. "It went by so fast. I feel like just yesterday they were born."

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Earlier in the week, Mata had a party for everyone at the hospital who helped her babies over the last year. She said she was sad to leave some of the doctors from before the separation, but she knows it's a positive thing.

"Now they're good and healthy and hopefully headed towards home," said Mata, 25, of Lubbock, Texas.

Mata was shocked to learn the twins were conjoined when she was pregnant with them, she told ABC News in July.

"I was speechless, it was so unexpected,” she said.

The girls were born on April 11, 2014 at Texas Children's Hospital. They shared a chest wall, diaphragm, intestines, lungs, lining of the heart and pelvis. Their middle names are Hope and Faith because you can't have one without the other, she said.

"Nightline" was at the hospital in February as 12 surgeons operated on the Mata twins, and Elysse, her husband and 20 family members camped out in the waiting room.

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Topics: surgery, twins, health, healthcare, nurses, doctors, medical, newborns, babies, conjoined twins, hospita

After 8 Years Of Infertility, Parents’ Shocked Reactions To Quadruplet Pregnancy Go Viral

Posted by Erica Bettencourt

Mon, Oct 06, 2014 @ 11:34 AM

Ashley and Tyson Gardner of Pleasant Grove, Utah, tried to conceive for eight years when they turned to in vitro fertilization this summer.

Boy, did it work. Or rather, girl, did it work. In July, they got the “surprise of our lives” when they went in for an ultrasound and found out they are expecting two sets of identical twins -- all girls.

A photo of the couple looking shocked while holding the ultrasound images has gone viral on their Facebook page, which also features photos of the moment they first found out Ashley was pregnant.

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"My whole goal in opening up about this is to promote infertility awareness," she said in a recent YouTube video. "It's not something that's talked about a lot and it's a really hard trial that people go through."

Ashley's fertility problems were caused by endometriosis, so the couple at first tried intrauterine insemination, she told BabyCenter.com. When that didn't work, they tried IVF, which cost them $12,000 out of their own pockets.

Ashley is now 18 weeks along and she and her husband are busy trying to pick names for their four girls.

"We were so blessed," she writes on her Facebook page.

Source: http://www.today.com

Topics: twins, ultrasound, viral, quadruplet, infertility, parents, nursing, health, pregnant, video, hospital, medicine, babies

Conjoined Twins Plan Party After Reaching Landmark Age

Posted by Erica Bettencourt

Wed, Jul 09, 2014 @ 10:55 AM

By GILLIAN MOHNEY

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Ronnie and Donnie Galyon are eagerly awaiting a major milestone this Saturday. Even though it’s not the conjoined twins’ birthday, the duo plans to celebrate turning 62 years, 8 months and 7 days old with a big block party.

The reason for the celebration? The date means they will have lived longer than the original “Siamese Twins,” Chang and Eng Bunker, who became famous as a sideshow act in the 1800's.

“Put it this way -- I’m stoked,” Ronnie Galyon, 62, told the Denton Daily News.

Ronnie and Donnie Gaylon were born in 1951 and live with their younger brother, Jim Galyon, and his wife in Beavercreek, Ohio. The Galyon twins are joined from the breastbone area to the pelvis and spent their first months on Earth in the intensive care unit.

“They weren’t even expected to live the first day, let alone get out of the hospital, let alone live 62 years,” said Jim Galyon. “This has been a life-long goal to meet and beat the Bunker twins. It means the world to them.”

After growing up, the pair performed in carnival sideshows and circuses until they retired in 1991, according to the Associated Press. The Galyon twins lived on their own after retirement, although they moved just a few houses down from their brother so that he could help them. The twins moved in with their younger brother after they became deathly ill following a viral infection and were in the intensive care unit with various health problems, including blood clots in Ronnie’s lungs.

With the help of the community and the Christian Youth Corps, Jim Galyon was able to build an addition on his house and make it handicap accessible. He and his wife now care for his brothers 24 hours a day.

“[They] have their own totally different personalities,” said Jim Galyon. “Donnie can be very serious and reserved; Ronnie is very happy-go-lucky.”

While the duo is excited for the party on Saturday, they’re really anticipating their next birthday. This October the twins will turn 63, breaking the record for the oldest pair of conjoined twins, according to Guinness World Records.

The twins have been excited about breaking the official record for years.

“It’s what me and Donnie always dreamed about, and we hope to get the ring, because we’ve dreamed about getting this since we were kids,” Ronnie Galyon told the Denton Daily News.

As the Galyon twins plan to make history, their family is working on compiling a history of the twins’ former life on the road. They’re asking anyone who might have seen Ronnie and Donnie Galyon in their circus days to can contact the Galyon family at Worldsoldestconjoinedtwins@gmail.com.

Source: abcnews.go.com

Topics: age, twins, conjoined, party

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