Chelsea Torres has explained why she rejected medical advice to separate her conjoined twin daughters Callie and Carter, nine years after the girls were given just a day to live.
Torres, who lives in Idaho, learned she was carrying conjoined twins at eight weeks and three days pregnant. The girls, joined at the chest and abdomen, arrived in January 2017. Doctors initially predicted they would survive only 24 hours.
Three days after the birth, the family was summoned to a doctor’s office. “They advised us at 3 days old to come into the office and talk with them,” Torres said during an appearance on ITV’s This Morning. “And they said, do not separate the girls.”
That recommendation conflicted with guidance Torres had received elsewhere. She noted it went against “a lot of doctors and a lot of surgeons” who had weighed in on the case.
The pregnancy revelation had come with little warning. Torres said the medical team fell silent before delivering the news that her babies were “stuck together.” The reaction, she recalled, was “complete shock.”
The early period brought additional hardship. Torres was recovering from major surgery herself and did not see her daughters until roughly 18 hours after delivery. “I was a little worried that I didn’t have enough time with them,” she said. But the infants proved resilient. “They just kept thriving and they just kept going,” Torres added, and the family eventually brought them home.
Around age three, the family confronted the question of surgical separation while the twins were still young enough to forget the experience. Torres and her husband chose to defer the decision. “We decided to ultimately give them the option whenever they became older and understood the risks and the surgery,” she said.
Mobility developed gradually. Torres explained that the leg positioned underneath is the one the girls control, so their first attempts at walking looked like “picking up one leg and floating in the air.” She described the process as “really hard” but said they now manage “perfect.”
An unexpected challenge surfaced in everyday shopping. Torres said she had not anticipated how difficult it would be to find ready-made clothing for the twins, calling it something people “do not think about.”
The sisters have developed distinct preferences and methods for resolving conflict. They both enjoy drawing, crafts, and playing Roblox together on an iPad. When disputes arise, they resort to rock, paper, scissors, though Torres said she drilled into them from an early age to “talk it out” first.
Torres maintains an online presence for the girls that began after messages from her personal account failed to reach other parents of conjoined twins. The dedicated page made her seem “authentic,” she said, and helped people find her.
Looking ahead, Torres admitted to nerves about the approaching teenage years and the prospect of dating. The family is also considering a service dog to assist with tasks like retrieving items from counters and turning on lights.
Torres, who has two other children, said her daughters have taught her patience, and not only in parenting. She has had to practice it with strangers too, because “people stare.”
The twins recently started a new school year, continuing to defy the prognosis they received as newborns.