Conjoined twins return home after separation surgery
APOPKA, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - A man from Apopka is happy to finally be bringing his baby girls home from the hospital. The girls were hospitalized for six months but now are able to come home thanks to a miraculous surgery.
Andre Pitre has been getting videos like this from his wife for months.
“I'm terribly excited to have them home.”
Their miracle babies, Remi and Jesi, were conjoined twins attached at the stomach, sharing a liver and intestines.
“They actually really didn't understand the anatomy until they were born,” said Pitre.
Their conjoinment kept the family separate for the last six months. The girls were in the hospital in Gainesville with mom nearby. Andre was at home in Apopka with their other children, working and preparing for the girls to come home.
“Now knowing what I know, I said wow this is very different from what I thought it would be.”
Andre and his wife found out she was pregnant shortly after Hurricane Irma, and their long road to birth was no less stormy.
“At that point we really didn't know what things were looking like. It was pretty traumatic.”
The odds for conjoined twins are not good, to say the least.
“You don't hear about the cases where the babies didn't make it. You don't hear about the 50% of cases that don't even make it to term,” said Pitre.
But Angi went into labor on Mother’s Day. The girls came out shaped like a heart, facing each other with their arms wrapped around each other and their legs intertwined.
“When one would get upset, the other would reach out with a foot and touch the other's leg.”
They would need all the comfort they could give for the separation surgery two months later and seven other surgeries before and after, not to mention breathing, blood pressure and electrolyte issues.
But now both of them are stable, discharged, healthy and expected home later this week. Andre has special medical equipment installed for when they arrive.
Defying all odds, the little heart babies are full of heart and love for each other even when FaceTiming with their dad.
“She’ll look up in the corner and see her face inside and she thinks it's sister. So she starts reaching for the little picture of sister in the square.”
That’s something they won’t have to do anymore.