Story of conjoined twins on TV show
Friday 20th February 2009, 10:55AM GMT.
Thousands of people tuned in to watch a documentary detailing the heartbreaking story of conjoined twins Hope and Faith, who died after the toughest fight for survival last year.
The Channel 4 programme filmed the gruelling operation performed by more than 20 staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital to separate the twins.
Last night’s documentary showed the rollercoaster of emotion experienced by parents Aled Williams and his wife Laura, 18, of Harlescott, Shrewsbury – the UK’s youngest mother of conjoined twins.
It followed the parents’ first visit to see their daughters, born on November 26 last year and bonding with the babies as they change nappies and give them toys.
Aled, 28, a former binman for Veolia in Shrewsbury, was shown as a positive, forward looking man, who puts his faith in the girls’ survival.
But his hopeful words were juxtaposed by the harsh reality of the facts, revealed by Professor Agostino Pierro, head of the surgical team.
He told the programme: “We don’t know how the babies will react if we manage to separate them, if the circulation will be sustained or not.
“Obviously we hope that the babies are surviving but one of them or even both of them could die during the operation.”
Hope’s lungs proved to be too small to support her breathing after the operation and Faith died of progressive organ failure on Christmas Day- just one day less than a month after her birth.
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