At 15 months old these Australian twin sisters Erin and Abby Delaney have already endured more than most.
Erin and Abby were born conjoined at the head; their skulls were attached, sharing a single crucial vein that circulates blood between their brains and their hearts.
But on June 6 this year, according to The Washington Post, a team of 30 doctors and nurses operated on the twins for 11 hours to separate them – and the surgery was a success.
Erin and Abby with their mum and dad, Heather and Riley.
The girls need skin expansions inserted in their skulls prior to their separation surgery.
It hasn’t been complete plain sailing since the surgery, with only one of the two sisters fully discharged from hospital, but the girls’ doting parents, Heather and Riley Delaney, are nonetheless thrilled.
“The weeks after the girls’ separation were filled with many terrifying moments,” mum Heather has written on her blog. Heather has started a GoFundMe page to raise money for the girls’ ongoing health needs.
“I know that when you see stories of conjoined twins being separated it’s so exciting and everyone is so happy. I wasn’t able to have that moment for a while.”
“When dealing with the brain things can change in an instant and because of that I lived at the hospital for the first almost month after the girls were separated.”
Riley holding Abby for the first time since the separation surgery.
The girls have faced health setbacks since their surgery, with Heather saying “their little bodies are getting colds and sicknesses” since being moved from the ICU to occupational therapy rooms.
“Whenever they aren’t in rehab getting their therapies it is a setback as to when we can go home,” Heather continues.
“And poor Abby just can’t seem to catch a break. She has had a respiratory virus 3 times (Erin twice, me once), Erin had the flu (Abby and I escaped that one thank God), and then just this past week Abby got a weird blood infection that caused her to go into septic shock, landing her yet another stay in the ICU.”
“This last one scared me I am not going to lie. She was really really sick for a few days there. She got 2 CTs, an MRI, a bunch of spinal taps, and every type of blood test in the book, and they still don’t know where in her body the infection was coming from or how she picked it up.”
However, Erin was discharged from hospital on October 1 and can now sit up on her own for 10-15 seconds, play with her toys and eat pureed food. Abby still needs assistance in hospital. But Heather and Riley are optimistic that she’ll be discharged soon enough.
Here’s wishing these two little fighters and their parents the very best!
