The World’s Rarest Triplets: See Their Transformation After a Groundbreaking Surgery
Parents Amy and Mike Howard were in for a surprise when they found out they were expecting triplets…
Parents Amy and Mike Howard had already received the shock of their lives when they discovered they were expecting triplets.
The couple conceived the triplets naturally, without IVF, which is highly unusual.
But when their sons Hunter, Jackson, and Kayden finally arrived, it became clear that they were a particularly rare collection of siblings.
In fact, their special appearance made them 1 in 500 billion!
A Rare Birth Defect: Craniosynostosis
The three were born with the same rare birth defect.
Doctors noted that Hunter and Jackson, who are identical, had skulls that lay further back in their heads than normal. Their brother Kayden had a pointed forehead and a triangular-shaped head.
The condition is called craniosynostosis. It is a very rare condition in which the bones in a baby’s skull fuse together too early. Craniosynostosis occurs in only 1 in 2,500 births, so the fact that all three of these triplets had the condition was extremely rare.
“The chance was 1 in 500 trillion to see a triplet that looked like these three,” said neurosurgeon Dr. David Chester to Inside Edition.
The Surgery and Recovery
And so, when the three were only 11 weeks old, they underwent corrective surgery.
Mike and Amy anxiously waited for a period of two days as each of their newborns underwent their surgery.
During three separate surgeries, the surgeons cut a strip of bone to remove the fused seam in each baby’s skull.
Once again, the siblings made history as it was the first time an operation had been performed on a set of triplets.
Fortunately, the triplets were resilient and were back home just 2 days after their surgeries!
The triplets were fitted with custom-made orthopedic helmets to help shape their skulls into a more typical form.
“It took them a little bit of time to adjust, but they don’t give me any trouble to take them off or put them on,” Amy explains.
Watch Amy and Mike talk about the triplet’s surgery in the clip below:
I’m so glad these surgeries went well and that these adorable triplets are on track to recover well.
Can you believe that these triplets resulted from a chance of 1 in 500 trillion? How incredible!
Help us share this story with your friends and family on Facebook to wish these three lots of success in the future.
