Treatments
Which Reflect Hopelessness
Termination of the Entire Pregnancy:
When pregnancy termination (induced abortion) is recommended
by doctors and counselors, it is done so not as a treatment,
per se, but as a reflection of their lack of faith in the
available therapies for TTTS. The Twin to Twin Transfusion
Syndrome Foundation is a pro-twin and, therefore, a pro-life
organization. We are in the business of hope, and there is
always hope. Certain doctors refuse to believe that parents
would risk any health problems in their surviving TTTS babies,
and would terminate all TTTS cases despite the fact that the
majority of twins survive and are normal regardless of treatment
used. Some physicians accomplish this end by 'passive neglect.'
This is where there are signs of significant TTTS on ultrasound,
and the doctor asks the patient to return weeks later instead
of one week hoping the pregnancy ends in the meantime. The
babies can live, please give the parents the opportunity to
save their babies. They all deserve the 'right to try.'
Selective Termination of One Baby by Various Methods:
The termination of one twin (with the hope that the pregnancy
will continue for the other) is undertaken for various reasons.
Perhaps one reason is when a severe birth defect baby, known
as an acardiac MC twin (here an identical twin is deformed
and does not have a formed heart), is kept 'alive' by the
normally formed twin who pumps blood to the acardiac twin
through the placental blood vessel connections. The normal
'pump' twin may go into heart failure due to the strain. The
various techniques to separate these twins include ligation
of the umbilical cord with suture, or the cauterization of
the cord with laser or electric current. Methods must be used
that occlude the umbilical cord or major fetal vessels in
the deformed baby to avoid death or damage (especially of
the brain) to the other normal baby as a result of an acute
transfusion through the connections. Sadly, some doctors use
this technique in TTTS when they either fail at attempted
laser surgery, or when they feel that one twin may have a
poor outlook. We have seen babies in heart failure with hydrops,
a chosen baby for cord ligation, have laser surgery and live
and be completely healthy.
|
