IT was the poignant image of love and life — a gravely ill twin hugging his identical brother in their mother’s womb as they both struggled for survival.
Tragically, only one would be born alive — but their bond has transcended death.
Ten years later, Javier Abela still thinks of his brother, Caleb.
He talks to him, plays with him and will even save a chair for him around the dinner table and order a meal for him at restaurants.
“My brother, Caleb, is cool,” Javier says.
“When I’m sad I’ll tell him I’m sad and he normally tells me I should cheer up.
“I like playing Batman with him.”
Javier also explains that if he asks a question of Caleb, he will see the answer written across his mind’s eye.
For some weird reason I get these words in my head,” he explains.
“So if I said: ‘Are you a boy?’, I would see ‘Yes’ in my head written down.”
Javier’s mother, Tania, says the bond between the twins remains undeniable.
“That nurture and care that he showed to his brother in the womb, that trait has carried through to now,” she says. “He doesn’t like to see anybody get hurt … he’s very protective.”
The family will celebrate Javier’s 10th birthday on Tuesday, surrounded by family — and, most likely, Javier’s much-loved Batman Lego characters — while also privately commemorating the loss of Caleb.
The boys were born via emergency caesarean at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital when Tania was only 27 weeks pregnant, after complications arising from the rare twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.
ENDURING LOVE: Javier holds twin brother Caleb in the womb.Source:News Limited
At the 14-week ultrasound, it was discovered that blood was flowing from Caleb to Javier, depriving Caleb of nutrients and fluid while dangerously bloating Javier.
“Caleb was what they called the ‘stuck twin’ and to see it on the ultrasound was just devastating,” Tania told the Sunday Mail a decade ago when the newspaper originally reported on the story.
“It looked like Caleb was wrapped tightly in cling wrap, he had so little amniotic fluid in this sac.”
In contrast, Javier was getting so much excess blood, urine and amniotic fluid that he was in danger of heart failure and brain damage.
His large amniotic sac sent Tania into early labour at 17 weeks. Despite specialised laser surgery at Brisbane’s Mater Mother’s Hospital to correct Tania’s disfigured placenta, Caleb died in utero and she continued to carry him for another seven weeks to give Javier a chance at survival.
He was born 13 weeks early, on July 26 — the length of a pen and weighing just 730g. He spent nine weeks in intensive care and a further four in the special care baby unit.
Javier came home from the WCH on October 23, weighing just over 1.8kg and was on oxygen for months afterwards.
“I look at Javier every day and think it is incredible what he has become from where he began,” Tania said in the lead-up to this week’s birthday.
“When they’re so premature, they need tubes for the basic functions in life and even now, looking at him when he eats a big meal, I think: ‘Oh my gosh, he can do that on his own’.
Javier just a few months old with parents Tania and Michael Abela and sister Sienna.Source:News Limited
“A lot of premature babies are at risk of severe cerebral palsy and brain damage and many other health issues and while Javier has some learning delays, chronic lung disease and cerebral palsy in one of his feet as a result of his prematurity, they’re not at all severe.
“It’s exciting to see him physically and mentally grow, get stronger and succeed and go to school and have friends and do all the things you want your child to be doing.”
But while Javier’s 10th birthday is cause for celebration, it will also be tinged with pain.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have mixed emotions,” Tania said of her twins.
“I still have days when I have the joy and grief mixed together.
“It’s his birthday but you can’t take away the thought that he did have a twin brother and they were identical — so you look at Javier and you see Caleb. That’s never going to go away.
“I try to always look at the situation in a positive way. I’ve felt blessed that, in the end, we are lucky to have Javier. But I’d be lying if I said there were times I didn’t feel sadness.”
Much has changed in the decade of Javier’s life. Tania and her marketing husband, Michael, have had career changes — she has left radio promotions and is now working as a primary school teacher — and they have moved into a tranquil part of the Adelaide Hills where they enjoy gardening.
Daughter Sienna, 13, who was born through IVF, is now a happy teenager who loves singer Ariana Grande and playing with Javier in the backyard creek. Caleb was laid to rest at the Enfield cemetery the day after Javier left intensive care and is visited weekly by family.
Tania says Javier has become a respectful, gentle, caring, sociable, funny and Lego-loving young man.
“When you’re lying over that crib and they are so tiny, you can’t believe they’re going to grow,” she recalls.
“And now to see him 10 years later doing all the things that 10-year-old kids do and you look back at where he started, that is the exciting factor for us, really.
“I hope my story encourages and gives faith to other families who may be in a situation to ours of caring and watching their premature baby develop.”
Resource: news.com.au
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