There is a new world record for the most premature twins and also with less weight. Canadians Adiah and Adrial, a girl and a boy, were born on March 4, 2022 at 22 weeks, 23 minutes apart. They weighed 330 and 420 grams, respectively. At the end of a year, they received the certificate of Guinness World of Records.
The story has a festive ending, but, the parents recalled when Guinness, it was a close call. Or rather for a few hours.
Shakina Rajendram went into labor at 21 weeks and five days. The doctors at the first hospital she went to had no doubts: her two babies were not viable and had a zero percent chance of survival.
“When I went into labor, the babies were denied all life support measures at the hospital I went to. [inicialmente] hospitalized, and almost left to die”, recalled the mother when Guinness World of Records.
The father, Kevin Nadarajah, did not conform, and the couple managed to be transferred to the Mount Sinai Hospital, in Toronto, which has a specialized neonatal intensive care unit and accepts to save premature babies born from the 22nd week (the majority of hospitals in Canada does not do so before 24 weeks).
But there was still a whole day to go and at the new health facility, although they guaranteed all the support for babies from the 22nd week onwards, they made it clear that if the children were born even a few minutes earlier, they would not have a chance.
Shakina Rajendram tried to delay the moment as long as she could, and the water broke 15 minutes after midnight. It was from there that the medical team at Mount Sinai dedicated themselves to saving the tiny beings, and they succeeded.
However, the last year has been full of challenges for both Shakina and Kevin. After delivery, the babies stayed in the neonatology unit in incubators and were extremely fragile: the skin of both, for example, was transparent.
The babies were born at 22 weeks and 0 days
DR
The hospital stay lasted six months, during which there was no lack of scares, including cerebral hemorrhages and sepsis. “We saw babies almost die before our eyes many times,” Shakina said. But they never gave up, they say, and spent up to 12 hours a day next to the twins, holding hands and singing to the babies.
At 161 days old, more than five months after giving birth, Adiah was discharged home. Her brother Adrial joined the family a week later.
Since then, says the mother, the girl has already increased her birth weight 18 times (she has almost six kilos) and shows to be “an extremely happy and social baby”. In fact, he underlines, Adiah “smiles all day”. In addition, she “is very chatty and has ‘conversations’ with us and her toys for hours”.
Adrial, on the other hand, suffered some setbacks, including infections and respiratory problems that forced him to be hospitalized twice in the last six months. But his development is “progressing well” and the mother points out that he is an “observant, attentive and intelligent” baby.
For the couple, faith was essential. Devout Christians believe that the power of prayer helped save the twins’ lives. “Babies were close to death so many times, and as people prayed, things miraculously changed,” says Shakina.
Both Adiah and Adrial will continue to be closely monitored by a long list of medical experts, but for now, the twins who had a “0% chance of survival” have already shown that there is always a forgotten probability.