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Baby Faith’s parents defend decisions
Monday 29th December 2008, 2:55PM GMT.
The Shropshire parents of conjoined twins who died less than a month after being born have insisted they were right to go ahead with the birth.
Faith Williams died on Christmas Day at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, nearly four weeks after being separated from her sister Hope during an emergency operation. The twins’ mother Laura Williams, of Harlescott, Shrewsbury, was the UK’s youngest mother of conjoined twins.
Laura,18, and her husband Aled, 28, refused to consider a termination despite doctors warning the babies might not survive.
Mrs Williams said: “Even after everything that’s happened, I still think we were right. They didn’t die inside me like the first doctor I saw said they would. They got this far.
“If I had to do it all again, I would. I don’t really know how to explain how hard it’s been but I still wouldn’t change anything.”
Mr Williams, a former binman for Veolia, added: “You make choices in life and we made a choice to give them life.
“We knew the risks but we gave them a chance and so did everyone who has helped us, from the doctors and nurses to our friends and family who have been such a support.
“I feel upset in one way but in another I don’t, because they’re both back together again, the way they were at the beginning.
“It’s good that she’s back with her sister. They’re out of harm’s way now.”
Faith and Hope were born on November 26. They were joined from the breastbone to the top of the navel and had a shared liver but separate hearts.
Hope failed to survive the initial operation to separate her from Faith because her lungs were too small to support her breathing. Faith died from progressive organ failure.
Their parents, who now plan to move from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth with their daughter Carly, maintained a virtual constant vigil at the newborns’ bedsides.
Mr Williams said they knew the end was coming when they were called in by doctors on Christmas morning.
“Everything they’d been telling us from the last three days up to Christmas was that she was going down and down and down,” he said.
“Her little body was shutting down and it was her way of saying she just could not take it anymore,” he added.
By Rhea Parsons
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I for one do not believe the parents need to defend their decision and have been through enough without having to go through a defence.
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No defence of their decision is needed. They did the right thing. They did what they thought was right and gave their babies a fighting chance. I think they are very brave people.
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My heart goes out to you both, I think you have done what every parent would do, and you went ahead with a decision that you thought was best
Faith & Hope will always remain with you
God Bless to you both x
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The poor children have lost the fight-there is NO need for further witch hunts surely-leave the parents alone to grieve.
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The poor babies have passed on!-there is NO need for a witch hunt as to why etc.
Leave the parents alone to grieve in private for gods sake!.
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It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. These poor people have been to hell and back since November. They had every right to try to keep their babies, sadly it just was not meant to be. Rest assured that we all feel your pain and losses with you, and that you did the right thing in going ahead with the pregnancy and birth. May your darling girls rest in peace now and may you both be left to grieve the loss of your children.
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How offensive of the Star to make the parents “defend their decision”.
Star you got it wrong.
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It is a sad fact that there is always going to be someone to add hurt to an already devastating situation. I, along with a lot of other people I’m sure, were willing those babies to live, and at no point did it cross my mind that the mom and dad had made the wrong decision. I would have made the same decision, and shame on ANYONE who can add pain to the family at this time.
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I’m not quite sure (from the article) exactly who is asking the parents to defend themselves.
The fact is that NO ONE has any right whatsover to put them in this position – if that is in fact what has happened.
The decision the parents made was theirs, and theirs alone. What any of us would have done in similar circumstances could only be ever known to oursleves – and therefore it follows – no one else can Judge – ever.
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if labour werent so bad at health care they could have been treated in shrewsbury hospital, its terrible whats happened but gordon brown and co are partly to blame because shrewsbury hospital is a derlict wreck whilst all his townies get nice new hospitals in their constituencies
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If the babies had lived the media wouldnt be saying any of this! The parents knew the risks and they decided to give them a fighting chance and fair play to them for at least trying! Alot of people probably wouldnt and it took alot of bottle to do that, let them grieve in peace. I just want to wish them all the best.
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Don’t be ridiculous Tory Boy ~ and your attempt to bring politics into this devastatingly heart-rending story is shameful.
Conjoined twins are so rare that there are only a handful of hospitals worldwide with the skills and expertise to even attempt such surgery. We are lucky in this country to have such a centre of excellence at Great Ormond Street in London. As wonderful as the surgeons are at RSH, I’m sure even they would defer to the experts over a case like this.
My prayers are with the family of Faith and Hope and may they rest in peace together in the knowledge that their parents did everything humanly possible for them.
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Tory Boy,
It is not appropriate for you to this situation to spout off your political dogma. You are very wrong to have used this situation to try and promote any politics, you are a disgrace.
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