Brothers Chandler and Chance Crafton were successfully delivered by C-section but remain fighting for their lives at the Children's Hospital of Georgia because of their conjoined heart and liver.
When their mother, Brittany Crafton, was told that she was expecting for the first time, she remembered being excited. However during her second sonogram, findings revealed that not only was the 26-year-old was carrying twins, but they were also joined by the chest.
"I knew something had to be different when the ultrasound took longer than expected," Crafton recalled. "The news of them being conjoined was truly surreal."
Conjoined twins, made when an embryo does not fully split into two separate fetuses in vitro, are extremely rare, occurring once in approximately every 60,000 births. Once they occur, there is about 40 to 60 percent chance that they die either by stillbirth or soon after they are born.
Postnatal surgery is the only known way to separate conjoined twins. While operations to separate twins are usually performed when the babies are ages 6 to 12 months, other factors like the area where the twins are conjoined, cardiac anatomy and circulatory structures may influence the urgency to perform the needed surgery. However, urgent operations often have high mortality rates by at least 40 percent.
Despite these odds, however, Dr. Paul Browne, Children's Hospital of Georgia's maternal-fetal medicine section chief, believes that there's a huge chance the twins may survive this.
"What makes this case special is that the heart the twins share is quite normal and has been functioning very well for them," Browne explained, adding that because the hospital is equipped with the proper tools to help increase the children's chances for survival, there is a high possibility that the twins can be separated with healthy hearts to sustain them both.
Crafton also maintains a positive outlook, citing her faith as the source of her strength. She said that God had been with her thus far, and that God will continue to support her even after the twins are born.
The story of the 26-year-old mother is posted on a GoFundMe page to help raise funds for supporting the twin boys' hospitalization and care.
