Premature twins Jacob and Luna with their parents Cristal and Junior. (RI photo)
A southwest Iowa couple who are the parents of twins born prematurely at 22 weeks say taking their son home from a Des Moines hospital five and a half months later is exciting.
Cristal Alvarez of Lenox went into labor on January 11. “I didn’t think they were going to make it,” she said during a news conference in a conference room at the hospital, wiping tears from her eyes. “…Seeing them here and alive is a miracle and it was really scary for us because you know you never really see babies this early make it…so seeing them now, you know, it’s overwhelming.”
Jacob was one pound, six ounces when he was born 166 days ago. His twin sister, Luna, was three ounces smaller. Luna remains in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines. She’s in stable condition and will be released when she starts getting her food from a bottle. She was the vocal twin, chiming in, as her parents spoke to reporters.
“It’s exciting to start this adventure with them at home,” Alvarez said. “I know Luna will eventually come home soon, but just seeing them do good is exciting for us, to take them home and be a family.”
Dr. Samir Alabsi, medical director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Blank Children’s Hospital, said the hospital had not been providing “active treatment: for babies born before 24 weeks, but that changed January 1, 2023. On January 11, he got a call about Crystal’s early labor and the twins.
“I said: ‘We are ready and we prepared to provide the best care for those babies,'” Alabsi told reporters. “And they came and we did it.”
The twins are the first babies born at 22 weeks at the hospital to survive. “They are not only alive, they are alive with good condition,” Alabsi said, “and that’s a big achievement for the team here.”
According to Dr. Alabsi, the survival rate for 22 week old babies in U.S. hospitals is between 30% and 50% and for twins that age, the survival rate is even lower.
Junior Mendez, the father of the twins, spoke through an interpreter at the news conference. He said after visiting the babies in the hospital for 166 days, it was “a happy day” to be able to leave the hospital with Jacob.