Identical twins to have birthdays four months apart due to pre-mature delivery of older twin

16 Oct 2015

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A Washington baby is four months older than its identical twin, after the premature birth of the stronger brother.

During the delivery, the doctors at the Evergreen Medical Center's NICU in a rare procedure, called "delayed interval delivery," gave Baby Logan, the weaker twin, a chance to stay in the womb to be born in January, when he is originally due, according to father Nick Gorveatt.

According to Dr Martin Walker, the specialist behind the procedure told the Daily News, this could be the longest interval between twin births ever documented.

He added, the situation was extremely rare, with only 10 recorded incidents from medical experts. Although the two were genetically identical, their separate birth circumstances will mean different appearances for a few years.

"Link will not grow quite as well in the nursery as his brother will in the uterus," Dr Walker said. However, he said genetics would correct the difference by the time they were about 3-or 4-years-old. "I think by the time they're young men, they'll be identical twins the way everyone else sees twins."

Baby Link was born on 29 September, at about 1 pound - seven times lighter than the average weight of a newborn. Logan continued to grow in his mother's womb, Gorveatt said on the GoFundMe page for the twins.

There was a high probability that Link would die from the premature birth and the surgery, as only 10 per cent of babies lived after the procedure, but miraculously survived.

"He's fighting for his life, waiting for the day he gets to meet his brother on the outside," the father said.

Born at 23 weeks, the infant is so fragile that his parents are still not able to hold him.

"It's very surreal to be post-partum and pre-partum," Holli Gorveatt told ABC's Seattle affiliate KOMO-TV.

Holli Gorveatt originally arrived at the hospital in Kirkland, Washington, after detection of signs of a condition in utero called "twin to twin" syndrome, in which one twin draws blood from the other in utero.

The condition can cause complications with one twin becoming bloated and the other becoming weakened from deprivation of blood supply.

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