Identical twins born at West Penn Hospital a rare medical marvel
If sharing makes for happy siblings, Josephina and Isabella Stroup ought to be smiling from ear to ear.
The premature identical twins born Saturday in West Penn Hospital in Bloomfield are an unlikely medical marvel, having shared the same amniotic sac and placenta in a pregnancy rife with risk.
Mother Carole Stroup said she was terrified when a doctor first explained the situation at 18 weeks. Babies confined together in such a small space can entangle themselves fatally in umbilical cords.
“After a day or so, we realized how cool it is, the miracle it is, because it is so rare,” said Stroup, 36, of Washington Township in Westmoreland County. “We immediately just became a little more excited. A lot more, really.”
The odds of such a pregnancy — twins sharing one sac and placenta — can reach one in 60,000, said Dr. Gretchen Krimmel, associate director at West Penn's neonatal intensive care unit. Doctors call the babies monoamniotic-monochorionic, or mono-mono, twins.
Because of the high-risk factor, clinicians had Stroup stay in West Penn for the final four weeks of her pregnancy for close monitoring. When the hospital handled another mono-mono pregnancy a couple of months ago, one fetus died in utero, Krimmel said.
She said Josephina and Isabella should be able to go home in a few months when their breathing and feeding improve. Physicians delivered them via cesarean section at 32 weeks as a precaution.
“The babies are really nice-sized. They're really well-grown. They're just beautiful,” Krimmel said.
The new arrivals have two older sisters waiting at home: Brianna, 5, and Karalyn, 3.
“They met them for the first time on Sunday, and they just fell in love,” said Stroup, a former Tribune-Review online editor who lives with her husband, Ryan.
Now an admissions coordinator at ManorCare Health Services in Shadyside, she'll be paying plenty of visits to West Penn the next few weeks.
“I'll be there as much as I can, just rooting them on,” Stroup said.
Adam Smeltz is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-380-5676 or asmeltz@tribweb.com.
