Conjoined Twins who Share the Same Heart will not be Separated

For conjoined twins Garrett and Andrew Stancombe, doctors were uncertain if the pair would survive. These brothers who are joined at the torso also share the same heart.

Born on April 10, the children are now at home and doing well. However, their parents are hesitant to go through with a surgery to separate the brothers when they also share a liver, according to CBS Pittsburgh.

"They could be here with us tomorrow and gone the next second," said the boy's mother, Michelle Van Horne, via the news organization. "A month down they could be gone. They could turn into teenagers. We don't know and that's the difficulty."

Van Horne and the twins' father, Kody Stancombe, first learned that the boys would be conjoined during the end of the first trimester. Doctors alerted the future parents that the boys may be stillborn or die within a few just a few hours following their birth.

"It was difficult hearing. I was scared and nervous," Van Horne said, via the news organization.

The University of Maryland Medical Center notes that around one out of every 200,000 live births will result in conjoined twins.

As the boys share two vital organs, the parents believe that it's in the best interest of the children to not separate them.

"They'll continue to fight until it's their time. We will love them and cherish them until that moment and continue even after," Van Horne said, via WPXI.com.