The twins from Catanzaro who were operated on in the uterus at the 24th week of gestation by the fatal surgery team of the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital returned home for Christmas. The surgery was necessary to avoid the serious risks of fatal transfusion syndrome (TTTS or Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome), a specific disease of twins who share the placenta, characterized by the abnormal passage of blood from one twin to the other. The girls, born preterm in mid-October in the S. Pietro Fatebenefratelli Hospital, are both doing well today and have returned home to celebrate Christmas together with the whole family who were waiting to hug them for the first time.

The journey from Calabria of mother Gessica and father Francesco begins on a very hot August day and ends with the lights on the Christmas tree. Shortly after the arrival in the hospital of the Holy See with the diagnosis of fetus-to-fetal transfusion syndrome, the emergency intervention carried out by the Feral Surgery team with Dr. Isabella Fabietti who works within the Operating Unit of Fatal and Perinatal Medicine and Surgery, directed by Dr. Leonardo Caforio, within the Surgical Medical Department of the Fetus-newborn-infant, with director prof. Pietro Bagolan. The operation was carried out in the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department of the S. Pietro Fatebenefratelli Hospital, led by prof. Marco Bonito, one of the most important birth centres in Italy, with which Bambino Gesù has started a close collaboration for some years.

Close ultrasound monitoring followed up to the decision to intervene at the 30th week with a caesarean section because they were concerned about the conditions of the smaller twin who grew less.

“One was born at 12.39 and one at 12.40 – recalls mother Gessica -. They cried: it means that they both breathes and they were fine, a miracle”. From the delivery room to intensive care and then the transition to the sub-intensive care unit from which the girls were discharged at the end of November for the first, and in recent days, in time for Christmas, for the second. “This year – jokes Gessica – we will play the characters of the crib, arriving not with one, but with two little girls, to the delight of grandparents, relatives and friends”. “It was a difficult experience – she continues – but thanks to the professionalism and above all to the great humanity of the doctors of Bambino Gesù and of the S. Pietro Fatebenefratelli who accompanied us at every step, we will be able to return home with our girls and this is the message of trust and hope that we want to convey to other parents who find themselves in our situation”.