Maryland triplets defy odds

By JENN BOGDAN

When Lori and Dave Titus learned in March they were expecting naturally conceived identical triplets, they wondered how they would meet what they thought was their challenge of a lifetime.

Three months later, the Tituses had more important things on their minds. Their triplets had developed a rare and often fatal condition known as twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, and Lori Titus could not get health insurance.

Twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome is a condition affecting pregnancies of identical multiples. The syndrome can develop when the fetuses receive an unequal supply of blood and nutrients from the mother, leaving one baby overloaded with supplies and the other malnourished.

In the Tituses' case, one baby was unaffected, while the other two were struggling. Left untreated, there was a more than 70 percent chance both babies would die.

"I went from having a nice, healthy, normal pregnancy to almost overnight finding out that my babies could have major brain and heart problems and that I might lose them in the process of trying to save them," said 38-year-old Lori Titus. "I was completely in tears."

The condition the triplets developed occurs in about 10 percent of identical twins, but the same data for identical triplets is thin.

"Identical triplets with twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome are exceedingly rare. I know of maybe four or five other people who have worked with cases worldwide," said Dr. Ahmet Baschat, a fetal medicine specialist at the University of Maryland Medical Center who treated Lori Titus. "The chance that this happens must be in the region of 1 in 15,000."Continued...

"How sad. I pray that the babies will survive. Miracles can happen."