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Prenatal vascular surgery saves babies' lives

HOOPER -- Taylor, Maddie and Hallie came into the world kicking and screaming last week, having survived a prenatal scare that could have been deadly for one or all.

"They are strong and feisty," said their mother, Ashlee Scott, 30, of Hooper. "We are so excited. We've been married since 2001, and now we have an instant family."

The triplets were born at 6:15 p.m., 6:16 p.m. and 6:18 p.m. Sunday at McKay-Dee Hospital Center in Ogden.

Maddie, weighing in at 1 pound, 15 ounces, and Hallie, weighing 3 pounds, 11 ounces, are identical twin girls; Taylor, a boy, weighed in at 3 pounds, 5 ounces.

"Our doctor, Julia Johansson, just went out of town on Saturday, and she told us not to have these kids while she was gone. I told her not to worry. I wouldn't have them until she got back," Scott said.

"Then, Sunday, here they came."

Todd Scott and Ashlee Kite met in Australia while both were serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ashlee was from Hooper; Todd was from California.

"Todd moved to Korea when he was 5 years old, and his name there was Jung," Ashlee Scott said.

"Taylor's middle name is Jung. The girls don't have a middle name. They are just Maddie and Hallie."

The babies are now in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit, where they are growing and thriving, she said.

"They are just watching them right now, but so far, there haven't been any complications since their birth," Scott said. "They are so cute. They all have black hair."

While in the womb, though, the girls developed twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.

The syndrome, which affects identical twins, occurs when blood passes disproportionately between the two babies through connected blood vessels in the single shared placenta. One baby ends up getting too much blood, the other not enough.

As a result, the amniotic fluid surrounding each fetus becomes severely imbalanced, said Dr. Robert Ball, director of Hospital Corporation of America's fetal therapy initiative. If left untreated, he said, severe cases have an 80 percent to 90 percent mortality rate for one or both babies.

"We went in for an ultrasound at 20 weeks, and the doctor at McKay-Dee Hospital discovered the twin-to-twin syndrome," Scott said. "We were immediately sent to Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles."

Two days later, she had surgery to correct the problem. The surgery uses a laser to close the blood vessels on the surface of the placenta that connect the babies' circulation systems. When the vessels are sealed off, the babies usually start to improve, Ball said.

"Both of the babies were in danger, but the surgery was a complete success, and they were cured that very same day," Scott said. "It was a blessing."

She was ordered to be on complete bed rest until the babies were born last week.

"We are so happy. I just can't imagine not having all of them here. We've been through a lot, and we are so grateful. Now we walk into the NICU, and there's our family. We take up half of the room."

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