Our Conjoined Twins Were Given 24 Hours To Live | MY EXTRAORDINARY FAMILY
CONJOINED twins Callie and Carter Torres are continuing to thrive together – despite expert doctors giving them just 24 hours to live. Callie and Carter were born attached by their pelvis area, sharing all organs from the belly button down and having a single leg each. The girls, who reside in Blackfoot, Idaho, are described as omphalo-ischiopagus twins that make up less than five percent of conjoined twins throughout the world. Still to this day, just 40 to 60 percent of all conjoined twins manage to survive past birth. But with their second birthday approaching in the new year, Callie and Carter’s health continues to improve, much to the delight of parents, Chelsea and Nick Torres.
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00:00Callie and Carter are phallo-ischiopagus conjoined twins,
00:04meaning that they share from the stomach
00:06down into the pelvis area.
00:09Kids will come up and just like look at them a little bit
00:11and they'll just say, are they stuck?
00:13And then I'm just like, they got stuck inside the tummy
00:16and now they're here and this is what happens.
00:19First, we kind of take a peek
00:21to make sure they're really awake.
00:23Carter likes to sleep more than Callie does.
00:26But Carter will pop back up.
00:29Hi, hello, hi, boop.
00:35Hang on.
00:40It takes two people normally to wash them.
00:44Oh, is that cold?
00:49This part's Callie, this part's Carter.
00:50Their blood supply clashes together
00:53like two waves into one body.
00:56They have separate hearts, separate stomachs,
01:00separate heads, of course.
01:04What else do they have separate?
01:05Personalities.
01:06Personalities, they have separate personalities.
01:14It's Jason's first day of school.
01:16This is actually our first time without brother
01:18for a couple of hours.
01:20Usually they have brother to play with.
01:23It's okay, daddy, be right back.
01:26That's when we can see their little faces a little bit.
01:30This is the first ultrasound we had.
01:32This is the day that we found out
01:34they were possibly conjoined, July 15th.
01:38I do believe 10 weeks, two or three days as well.
01:42That's when we 100% found out
01:44that they were conjoined was in this picture.
01:48They just kind of flipped us upside down.
01:53They told us that they had high drops,
01:56which kills almost all the babies that get it.
01:57At the very, very beginning,
01:59we thought abortion would be the best option.
02:02No one wants to carry their kids through nightmares,
02:04just have them die.
02:08We didn't, but we stuck with our gut, and here we are.
02:17This is the first picture we ever got of them face to face.
02:20There's a face right here and another face right here.
02:24This was Carter right here.
02:30This is the first time I've actually, I think,
02:32looked at these since the girls were born,
02:34because I would just think that they were gonna die
02:36as soon as they were here.
02:41After the 24 hours, once they were born,
02:43Carter had a little bit of breathing problems,
02:45but they were doing good.
02:47I have two perfect babies.
02:50A huge pressure was just removed from us,
02:53because now the dread of,
02:55my babies are gonna die when they come out, is gone,
02:58because they were here, and they were here to stay.
03:05This one's Callie.
03:07Callie's the one who lays back.
03:09She's more relaxed.
03:10She has a little bit of scratches on her face
03:12because Carter beat her up in the car.
03:16She's just something else.
03:19She fights with her sister.
03:21She'll fight with the dog.
03:22She'll fight with Jason.
03:24She fights with us.
03:26So she's actually very vicious.
03:29Yeah, you.
03:31This is Callie and Carter's room.
03:32They sleep in here.
03:33They take naps in here.
03:35They get their diaper changed in here.
03:37Sometimes they'll get dressed in here,
03:38and they have their little music box
03:40that they can't sleep without.
03:42So they just wake up.
03:44I usually will nurse them,
03:46and then that's when they go into the living room,
03:49where they spend most of their time.
03:51We were vastly unprepared for babies to come home.
03:54We were.
03:56We didn't have clothes.
03:59Completely caught us off guard.
04:00This is the first outfit I made for Callie and Carter.
04:03I actually buy regular clothes from the back,
04:08and I cut them in half a certain way.
04:19They like to play on the ground.
04:21They can scoot and get everywhere around the house.
04:31So Callie and Carter's clothes.
04:34Just like that.
04:36I've made about 20 pieces so far, I'd say.
04:41That's how much I've made.
04:42They like to venture into the kitchen
04:43and try to spill the dog food,
04:46but other than that, they just hang out here.
04:52Teacher, did it put on red or green or blue?
04:55It's been good.
04:56What'd you learn?
04:57Oh, like the ABCs.
04:59The ABCs?
05:00Yeah, and the one, two, threes.
05:03Hey, sisters, come on to school.
05:06You okay?
05:08Jason gets along with them good.
05:10If they are crying and one of us are busy,
05:12he'll go in there and play with them until we're done.
05:16What does Callie do?
05:18She likes to play with things.
05:21She likes to play with things?
05:22What does Carter do?
05:24She scoots.
05:26She scoots.
05:27How many heads does Callie and Carter have?
05:30Two.
05:30Is that different?
05:32Yeah.
05:33Are Callie and Carter, what are Callie and Carter,
05:35are they special?
05:37They're special.
05:38Are they like other babies?
05:40No.
05:41No.
05:42Go, good job!
05:44There's been old ladies who've been like,
05:47oh, God wouldn't have wanted those children alive.
05:50Some people just kind of stare.
05:51They don't expect them to walk till about four,
05:55but I honestly think it's gonna be about eight.
05:57So we don't expect the coordination to start happening
06:00until they are a lot older.
06:01Push, push, push.
06:03Go get it!
06:04We don't feel comfortable separating the twins
06:07because they're gonna be more unhealthy
06:09when we have them separated than they are right now.
06:12This one, play with.
06:14The only way we would do separation surgery
06:16for Callie and Carter is if a health issue arise
06:19or if they want to be separated.
06:24We want them to completely understand the risks.
06:30The girls' health is really good.
06:31They don't have to take any medication.
06:33They get like a little cold here and there,
06:35like normal kids.
06:38Hopefully the future holds good things for them
06:41and that they are just happy
06:42in the skin that they're in
06:44and that they don't want to change
06:45because we love them the way they are.
06:49Just knowing that they're healthy
06:50and they're learning at an everyday rate,
06:53it's a good feeling knowing that,
06:56to them, nothing's wrong.
06:58They are not afraid to do anything.