Miracle twins: Golden couple have procedure to save their babies

Deb Hurley Brobst
dbrobst@coloradocommunitymedia.com
Posted 1/30/23

Zoey and Kenna Conley are typical 5-year-old twins: full of life, always busy and best friends.

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Miracle twins: Golden couple have procedure to save their babies

Posted

Zoey and Kenna Conley are typical 5-year-old twins: full of life, always busy and best friends.

They are athletic, smart, and at times, they drive their older brother Beckham crazy. They are excited to start kindergarten in the fall.

According to dad Tyler Conley, they are perfect.

But the twins’ lives didn’t start quite as perfectly. Tyler and Kendal Conley of Golden learned when Kendal was 17 weeks pregnant that the twins had the sometimes-deadly Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome. This rare condition is only seen in identical twins who share a placenta where one fetus donates a significant portion of its fluid and blood to the other fetus.

With specialized medical care and a successful in-utero surgery performed through the Colorado Fetal Care Center at Children’s Hospital Colorado, the twins are now happy, healthy and a handful for their parents.

Finding medical care

The Conleys were not overly surprised they were having twins, since twins run in both of their families. By the time Kendal had a 12-week ultrasound, doctors were seeing things they didn’t like.

The couple went to the Colorado Fetal Care Center and met Dr. Henry Galan, a fetal surgeon and maternal fetal medicine specialist. He is one of few doctors in the nation who performs the in-utero surgery to reverse the syndrome.

The couple quickly learned about the syndrome, how it was negatively affecting the babies and what the treatment options were. With in-utero surgery, they also learned the chances of having one healthy baby was 95% and two healthy babies was 85%.

“Normally, there is a nice, stable blood flow between twins,” Galan explained. “With (the syndrome), that blood flow becomes imbalanced, and one baby is giving more blood to the other.”

Galan performed laser ablation surgery to burn the tiny blood vessels to block them from communicating between the twins. Tyler said it took several hours for Galan and his staff to map the placenta and create a plan to fix the issues. The surgery itself took less than three minutes.

Complete bedrest

Although the surgery was successful, both babies shared an amniotic sac, so at 19 weeks, Kendal was at home on complete bedrest; at 26 weeks, she went to Children’s Hospital to wait to deliver her babies; and at 30-1/2 weeks, she delivered two healthy babies — Zoey weighed 3.5 pounds and Kenna 4 pounds — on Jan. 4, 2018.

For Kendal, the hardest part was the time she was at home on bedrest because she would go to the doctor once a week to look for two heartbeats.

“We were praying for two heartbeats,” Tyler said. “We were hoping the two were alive.”

The babies spent nine weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital, and the family came home close to the babies’ original due date.

Kendal said being in Children’s Hospital waiting to give birth gave her time to learn to knit, read books and walk the hallways.

“I was spoiled,” she said. “I made some great friends with the nurses and doctors. It was pretty special.”

Galan, who still stays in touch with the family, called the Conleys a remarkable couple.

“Super positive,” he said. “Mindset has a lot to do with it. Those kids are infinitely loved. It always does our hearts the best to see these kids growing up.”

His advice is for women to have ultrasounds early in their pregnancies to determine the number of fetuses and if there are twins, whether they are identical.

The twins today

Even though they were born nearly nine weeks early, the twins have no health issues, no learning issues and are the same as other 5-year-olds.

“They are alike in so many ways,” Tyler said. “They have the same likes and dislikes with food and clothes.”

Yet, the Conleys believe Kenna is destined to be a doctor or scientist.

“She is more mischievous, more exploratory,” Tyler said. “She’ll dump out a box of cereal just to see what happens.”

Zoey, on the other hand, is more Zen, her parents say. She is thoughtful, tenderhearted and empathetic.

The Halloween costumes the girls chose last year say it all about their personalities, Kendal said. Kenna dressed as a devil, while Zoey dressed as an angel.

Miracle children

Looking at the twins now, the Conleys say they almost forget about the in-utero surgery that brought them two happy, healthy babies.

“Looking back, they are such miracles,” Tyler said. “It’s hard to believe they did this procedure when she was pregnant. It feels like science fiction.”

The Conleys are grateful they live in a city that has the specialized care that the Colorado Fetal Care Center could provide.

“We are blessed,” Tyler said. “We were able to get to the specialists without having to travel long distances. The care and the knowledge of the medical staff and their ability to perform the procedures were amazing.”

Kendal added: “We’re grateful we had such good care in our backyard.”

Colorado Fetal Care Center, Children's Hospital Colorado, Conley, Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome, twins

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