Twins defy doctors and start at school

Anna Blyth • Published 19 Aug 2010 12:00

A SET of Saltcoats twins headed off for their first day of school yesterday, defying the ghastly predictions of doctors when the boys were born almost four months premature.

Born an incredible 15 weeks early, Michael and Joe McIlhatton (5) were the smallest surviving set of twins in the UK at the time, weighing just over 1lb each at birth, with doctors advising their parents to get them named straight away as their chances of survival were as low as 5 per cent.

An agonizing four months of uncertainty followed as the twins were kept in hospital in Newcastle - where the family were living at the time - and had to undergo major heart surgery, lung surgery, countless blood transfusions and nine different instances when the boys died and had to be resuscitated.

For the full story see this week's Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald.

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