Washington: A 29-year-old from the US has become the first woman in the world to give birth to twins after having a heart transplant.
Only a handful of women have ever given birth after a heart transplant, and until now, never to twins, doctors said.
Stefania DeMayo was still recovering from her operation when she unexpectedly fell pregnant and doctors warned her against having a baby so soon after major life-saving surgery as it would put her in serious danger again.
"We'd been warned I shouldn't conceive for at least a year after the transplant," Stefania said, adding "they said being pregnant would place too much strain on my heart".
Stefania was suffering from a rare condition called restrictive cardiomyopathy, which may have begun with a simple tooth infection.
In late 2008, after three years of suffering, Stefania was finally offered a heart that fit her rare blood type.
The heart was from a 14-year-old boy, Sean Clegg, who had been killed by a car while riding his bike.
She was allowed home with the warning against getting pregnant for at least a year. But by chance she found she was expecting only a few months after the operation with twins.
Nurses and doctors told Stefania she was the most high-risk pregnancy they had ever come across, the Daily Mail reported.
After breaking the news to her doctors, the couple were told their babies had a 90 per cent chance of being diagnosed with Downs Syndrome.
The test, known as a nucal fold test, showed they were suffering from transfusion syndrome, where one baby takes most of the nourishment in the womb, but not Downs Syndrome.
The couple were told there was a large chance the smaller baby would die in the womb, turn toxic and kill the larger child.
She finally gave birth to Melania and Natalia by emergency cesarean section at 32 weeks in December. There was about 50 medical experts in the room for the birth,' she said.
Now both girls are finally at home with their mother, who recovered well after the birth, and their father.
Comments
0 comment