Seth and Jacob

Now healthy 2-year-old boys, twins Seth and Jacob Kazanjian have taken up a rather interesting hobby in and around their Fowler home.

“They’re big climbers,” says their mother, Marcie. “Any piece of furniture in our house, they climb on it. They can climb up a slide. They sometimes drive me crazy with how much they climb.”

Hard to imagine that just two years ago, these mini-mountaineers couldn’t even breathe. Forget needing oxygen at the summit of Mount Everest, these two needed it just to get through their first few weeks of life.

They were born premature, at 31 weeks and five days, to be exact. Seth was just 3 pounds, 12 ounces. Jacob was even smaller–2 pounds, 15 ounces. Shortly after their unexpected arrival, they were transferred to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Hospital.

Seth and Jacob are pictured here with fellow preemie twins Zach and Michelle Liu

They were both placed in incubators. Ventilators helped them breathe until their lungs developed. Seth just needed some time to feed and grow in the NICU. Jacob, however, needed to overcome a few more challenges than his brother.

His first bowel movement never came. Neonatologist Dr. Kajori Thusu ordered exploratory surgery to identify the problem. Pediatric surgeons found that Jacob’s bowels were so narrow, nothing could get through the small and large intestine. The blockage was cleared and the problem was solved.

At least that’s what everyone thought.

After surgery, Jacob still couldn’t pass anything. Another operation revealed that the end of the bowel had died. An ostomy was performed to collect the waste products that were building up in Jacob’s body. Then, he came down with a blood infection.

“He was very, very sick at that point,” says Marcie.

One more surgery, his third in just 11 weeks on this earth, cleared things up for good.

Finally, Jacob was able to go home and be with his brother, who had left Children’s about a month before.

“He’s doing really well now,” says Mom. “You wouldn’t know it. He’s a little smaller than his brother. They’re just two different boys. Born at the same time, but two totally different boys.”

As it turns out, Jacob and Seth were just one set of the many twins Children’s
NICU cares for each year. Over 60 percent of twins are born prematurely or weigh less than 5 ½ pounds. Though it’s not known exactly why so many twins are born early, a common theory is that the over-distention of the uterus causes premature contractions and labor–that is, mom simply runs out of room. Another theory is that there’s not enough food for both babies in utero, and they come out early to be fed.

Whatever the reason, Marcie is just grateful that a place like Children’s
Hospital was nearby.

“I’m so thankful that Children’s Hospital is here in the Valley,” she says. “We learned so much through the NICU nurses. And the doctors were just excellent. They took so much care of us and so much care of the kids.”

As for Seth and Jacob, they’re now just regular 2-year-old twins. They eat together, they play together, and they climb together.

Journey Sponsored by Linda I Ridenour Foundation
Adventured Sponsored by Table Mountain Rancheria