Conjoined Twins In Georgia Have Died: Report

Conjoined twins in Augusta, Georgia, died Wednesday night from multiple complex medical complications, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The boys, Chance and Chandler, were delivered by C-section Monday. After birth, they remained in critical condition in the neonatal intensive care unit for two days at Georgia Regents Medical Center.

Chance and Chandler were born with two heads, four arms, four legs, one heart and one liver. The twins’ survival was dependent on their heart, and Dr. Paul Browne, section chief of maternal-fetal medicine at the medical center, had previously said the heart was functioning normally after delivery.

"A lot of conjoined twins have heart problems after they're born,” Browne had said, KOLO-TV reported. "But what's remarkable about these twin boys is how healthy they are and how well they've done during the pregnancy."

The twins’ mother, Brittany Crafton, 26, is in good condition. A GoFundMe campaign entitled “2 Smiles 1 Heart” had been established to help pay for the family’s medical bills and had garnered $5,940.

"The news of them being conjoined was truly surreal," Crafton said before her delivery, the Atlanta Journal-Constiution reported. "I know God's got me, and He'll continue to be with me even after the twins are born. This experience has helped me to look at 'different' people differently, and I have gained a real compassion for what they go through."

Conjoined twins occur in about 1 in every 200,000 live births, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. Approximately 40 to 60 percent arrive stillborn, and roughly 35 percent survive only one day. The overall survival rate of conjoined twins is between 5 percent and 25 percent. Female conjoined twins, which account for about 70 percent of conjoined twins, have a higher survival rate and are three times as likely as males to be born alive.