One year ago, Lily and Darcy Ellis beat the odds when they were born healthy after being diagnosed with twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) – a rare complication of pregnancy that often ends in death for one or both twins. Ten months later, they beat out the competition to land a starring role on the BBC’s popular medical drama Casualty, in which they took turns playing the daughter of a homeless couple.
“I can’t wait to see them on TV. They are my little miracles,” the twins’ mother, Rachel Jones, told the UK’s Mirror. “I’m so proud of them for landing a role in such a big show.”
But Jones has much more to be proud of than the twins’ acting careers. The two tiny fighters were given only a 5 percent chance of survival by Jones’ doctors when they were diagnosed with TTTS at only 18 weeks gestation. But after undergoing cutting-edge prenatal laser surgery and surviving the premature rupture of their amniotic sacs, both twins were born healthy at 34 weeks.
“They were perfect. My little miracles,” their mother wrote, in a piece describing the experience for Friday Magazine.
TTTS occurs when the blood flow between twins inside the womb becomes imbalanced, leading to an overload of amniotic fluid in one sac and dangerously low levels in the other. Left untreated, the condition is almost always fatal to one or both babies, and often, doctors recommend the abortion of the smaller or “donor” twin to improve the chances of the other’s survival.
When Lily and Darcy were diagnosed with the condition, the first option doctors presented to Jones was abortion, but she refused.
“I didn’t have to hear any more on the subject,” Jones wrote. “I knew that wasn’t an option for me.”
Instead, Jones opted to undergo a risky and relatively new procedure called selective laser ablation, in which doctors enter the womb with a needle and use a scope and laser to identify and cauterize some of the blood vessels flowing to the larger twin, in an attempt to restore adequate blood flow to the smaller twin.
Jones was awake while the surgery was performed, and was able to watch the entire procedure on a video screen. “At first I couldn’t make anything out but then [my fiancé] Stephen [Ellis] said: ‘Look! Look at that!’” Jones recalled. “The camera was moving up behind one of the twins and I could see her tiny clenched hand on the screen. ‘That’s incredible!’ I gasped.”
The surgery went well, but the following day, Jones and Ellis had another scare when Jones’ water broke.
“I was convinced it was the end, that I’d lost the twins. I was still only 19 weeks pregnant. How could they survive being born at such a young age?” Jones wrote.
She rushed to the hospital, where she was told to expect the worst. But the next day brought a miracle instead – a more detailed scan revealed that the twins’ sacs had both resealed and filled up with amniotic fluid again – an event the ultrasound technician called “incredibly rare.”
At 34 weeks, one of the twins started to fall behind the other in growth again, so doctors recommended a C-section. Lily and Darcy were both born healthy, each weighing about 5 pounds.
Jones signed the pair up with a local talent agency, where they joined their older brother and sister, who are already child models. Ten months later, the identical little girls won their first acting role – an experience their mother thoroughly enjoyed.
“All the Casualty cast kept coming into their dressing room to see them because they’re so cute,” Jones told the Mirror. “It was amazing when they were filming, they seemed to get into character straight away. The director came up to me and said they were the best babies he’d ever worked with, so that was nice as well.”
The twins’ episode of Casualty will air on the BBC on January 3.