New York - Miracle Mom Has Twins After Heart Transplant


In the past 12 years, there have been 48,000 heart transplants performed in America – a number so high it might be easy to forget how amazing these life-saving operations truly are. 

But in all that time, only 39 women in the world have ever given birth after a heart transplant. And never had a woman given birth to twins after the life-saving surgery. Until now. 

Melania and Natalia are Stefania and Richard DeMayo's newborn twin girls. 

The story starts with the DeMayo's honeymoon, when Stefania got very sick. 

"So my husband was given the task of deciding either to save my life or to put me on life support," Stefania said. 

And she survived. But she got worse over the next three years until a heart transplant was her only option. She got her heart about a year and a half ago – but that was just the first step. 

"She had always said to me, and always said to her doctors, 'the main reason I want to do this is cause I want to have a family,'" said Richard. 

But Stefania's cardiologist didn't like the prospect of her giving birth. 

"We don't know what the effect of pregnancy may be," said Dr. David Baran of Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. ""It's a tremendous strain with one child, with two, it makes the heart work much harder." 

And most of the tests doctors use to tell if a patient is rejecting their heart can't be done during pregnancy for fear of harming the baby – or in this case, babies. 

Even with the long odds, Melania and Natalia were born just 16 months after Mom's transplant, a little small and premature, but healthy. But that's the end of story. 

In order for Stefania to live, someone else had to die and donate their heart. That someone was 14-year-old Sean Clegg. 

"He was riding his boke home for dinner, and his brother and one friend came in and said Sean got hit by a car," said Gail Clegg, Sean's mother. 

But even in their agony over losing their son, the Cleggs decided that Sean would be an organ donor. 

"We wanted to do that," said Andrew Clegg, Sean's father. "We just looked at each other and said you know this is what Sean would want to do." 

A few months later, Stefania reached out to the Cleggs. They met – and now, Andrew and Gail Clegg visit the baby twins that their son's donation helped make possible. 

How does Stefania say thanks? 

"I can't thank them enough. I love them. I really love them like my own mother and father. I do." 

"Their son gave us a chance at life and brought more life," added Richard. "Not only saved my wife's life, but brought even more life into this world." 

CBS 2

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