Chelsea Torres was 8 weeks and 3 days pregnant when she learned she was expecting conjoined twins.
The doctors first remained silent and then told her that her daughters were “joined together”. Callie and Carter were born in January 2017, joined at the chest and abdomen, and were given only 24 hours to live. Chelsea was recovering from major surgery and couldn’t see them until about 18 hours after delivery. When the girls were three days old, the family was called to the doctor’s office. There they were told: “Don’t separate the girls”.
When they were about three years old, the Torres family had to decide whether to operate on them while they were so young they wouldn’t remember it. They chose another path: to give them the choice when they were older and understood the risks. Today they are nine years old, have just started a new school year, and share a leg that they walk with “perfectly”, although learning took a lot of effort. They like drawing, doing crafts, and playing Roblox, and when they can’t agree, they settle it with rock, paper, or scissors.
