When Sandy and Jesse Fuller found out they were having twins in the fall of 2022, they had no idea the adventure they were in for. They were already parents to a daughter, Emilia, and soon found out they would add a pair of identical twin girls to their family, but that was only the first surprise. The twins, Ella Grace and Eliza Faith, were conjoined at the abdomen and liver and would need a complicated surgery to separate them.
The girls were born in March 2023, and have been in the neonatal intensive care unit at Texas Children's Hospital since. Doctors at the hospital successfully separated the girls during a six-hour surgery on June 14. Today, the family of five is finally home together and living their dream.
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Sandy Fuller learned her twins were conjoined during a routine ultrasound.
According to a press release from Texas Children's Hospital, once the family realized the girls were conjoined, they began specialized care at Texas Children's Fetal Center.
"Conjoined twin pregnancies are incredibly rare and very high-risk, so it's important that an expectant mother receive care from a highly-skilled maternal-fetal medicine team," said Dr. Roopali Donepudi, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Texas Children's Pavilion for Women and Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine. "The prenatal testing and imaging that Sandy underwent at Texas Children's Fetal Center was incredibly thorough, and informed not only the labor and delivery team to ensure that mom and babies had the best birth outcome, but also allowed our neonatal and surgery colleagues to begin planning for the twins' care while still in utero."
The girls were born healthy.
Sandy gave birth to the girls on March 1, at Texas Children's Pavilion for Women. Aside from being conjoined, the twins were healthy at birth, each weighing 5 lbs., 10 ozs. They were immediately cared for in the NICU by a team of 17 professionals.
"Every set of conjoined twins poses unique challenges for our team, and Ella and Eliza were no exception," Dr. Jonathan Davies, a neonatologist at Texas Children's Hospital and assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, said in a statement.
"Through the coordination by our Conjoined Twin Clinical Program, we were able to personalize our treatments for Ella and Eliza. This allowed all of our teams to provide the specialized care that they needed from the delivery room, through preparing for their separation surgery and now to the very exciting milestone of getting to go home."
The surgery was in the works for months.
The team and Texas Children's started to prepare for Ella and Eliza's separation surgery while Sandy was still pregnant. Dr. Alice King, who led the surgery, explained the process in a statement from the hospital.
"Our team began planning and preparing for this operation before these babies were even born. From conducting simulations of the procedure, to collaborating extensively with our colleagues in anesthesiology, maternal-fetal medicine, neonatology and radiology, we have all been working together to achieve one common goal: the best outcome for Ella and Eliza," she said.
The surgery was a success, and the family couldn't wait to hold the girls.
Three days after they were separated on June 14, Sandy and Jesse finally got to hold the girls one at a time. Sandy shared an emotional video on Instagram of the moment she and her husband first held their separated daughters on June 17.
"Holding Ella and Eliza for the first time since separation. the new normal we have longed for so desperately. My babies on their backs in our arms so comfortable. Both are doing so well and I'm so so so proud of them. Lord, thank you for these little miracles," she captioned the video.
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The twins were released from the hospital on July 11.
After 134 days, the Fuller family is now all together, and they are thrilled. According to Good Morning America, Jesse said he was ready. "I know it's going to be another chaotic moment once we get home, but we're excited about that chaotic moment. I'm kind of bracing myself because I know it's going to be a wild house pretty soon, but I'm excited," he said.
Sandy explained on Instagram that the girls would continue recovery at home with feeding tubes, but the mom of three is not worried.
"We will have lots of follow ups after discharge, PT & OT will continue to work with them so the journey isn't quite over but we are so happy to finally be reunited as a family of five. It's a blessing to be able to go home 3.5 weeks after a major surgery, both girls discharged at the same time, no medications, with only a temporary feeding tube! God has been so kind to us. " she wrote.
