Health
Atlanta couple’s conjoined twin daughters, fused at the heart, lived for just 1 hour: ‘Gift from God’
Breana Dell was only able to hold her newborn twins, Amelia Jane and Elhora Auri, for just one hour after they were born on Feb. 29 — but every minute was filled with “peace” and “awe,” she said.
Three months before that, at 17 weeks of pregnancy, she and her husband, Matthew Dell, had gotten an ultrasound to learn the gender of what they thought was one baby.
The Atlanta couple was shocked to discover the single heartbeat on the monitor was shared by two girls. The conjoined twins were fused at the torso.
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“Everything changed in that moment,” Dell, 24, a stay-at-home mom, told Fox News Digital during a phone interview.
“I started to panic and cry.”
Amelia Jane Dell and Elhora Auri Dell were born on Feb. 29 at 7:37 a.m. They each weighed 3.5 pounds. (Mandy Daniel Photography)
Doctors told the couple there was little-to-no chance of separating the twins — which meant there would be little-to-no chance of their survival.
“Because of how their heart was conjoined, it would just be too complicated,” Dell said.
The couple saw numerous specialists for MRIs and other exams.
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“It was lots and lots of appointments, in hopes that they would be wrong and that something could be done — but it didn’t work out that way,” Dell said.
The month before the twins were born, a cardiologist confirmed that there would be no way of separating the twins, and they would probably not survive.
The Dells focused on preparing for delivery and all the different outcomes they might face.
“Their heart literally was one unit,” Dell said. “I got the question a lot: ‘Can’t you just save one of them?’ It wasn’t possible, because they couldn’t live without each other.”
With that tough news, the Dells focused on preparing for delivery and all the different outcomes they might face.
“Northside Hospital [in Atlanta] was amazing,” Dell said. “They were so kind and considerate of our situation and our family.”
‘Never lost hope’
Dell, who already had a 1-year-old son, Dallas, was offered the choice of having an abortion — but she said it was “never even a thought.”
“Our thought process was always, ‘What can we do to save them and keep them,’” she said.
“Our faith was the biggest factor in the decision we made.”
“Our faith was the biggest factor in the decision we made,” she added. “I don’t know how anybody could get through a situation like that without having faith.”
Despite the twins’ prognosis, Dell said, she believes they were a gift from God who came to them for a reason.
“When I was first told that they were conjoined, it was just this bubble of devastation, sadness, confusion, uncertainty and fear,” the twins’ mom recalled. “But nobody can predict the future perfectly, and you just never know what the outcome will be.” (Mandy Daniel Photography)
“When I was first told that they were conjoined, it was just this bubble of devastation, sadness, confusion, uncertainty and fear,” she recalled.
“But nobody can predict the future perfectly, and you just never know what the outcome will be.”
As the pregnancy progressed, however, Dell said she faced tough emotional struggles.
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“I had severe anxiety attacks,” she said. “I knew what the outcome would be — but you can’t really prepare yourself for that.”
She went on, “Toward the end of my pregnancy, I had severe brain fog, my stomach was in knots, and I knew my body was trying to tell me, ‘Hey, you’re not OK.”
‘A sense of peace’
Amelia Jane Dell and Elhora Auri Dell were born on Feb. 29 at 7:37 a.m.
They each weighed 3.5 pounds.
Matthew and Breana Dell are shown holding their twin daughters after they were born on Feb. 29. “It was amazing to see how their little bodies were still working,” Breana Dell said. (Mandy Daniel Photography)
The girls came into the world the same way they had appeared in the later ultrasounds — with their arms wrapped around each other.
“It was actually really sweet the way they were conjoined — they were holding each other from the moment they were alive, just in a big hug,” Dell said.
“Just to know that they were there, and that I held them alive, brought a sense of peace.”
“It was amazing to see how their little bodies were still working,” she went on.
“They didn’t move a whole lot or open their eyes — but just to know that they were there, and that I held them alive, brought a sense of peace … I couldn’t imagine not getting to meet them.”
What to know about conjoined twins
Conjoined twins are rare, occurring in one of every 50,000 to 200,000 births, statistics show.
The condition results from a single fertilized egg dividing into two embryos more than 13 days after fertilization, according to StatPearls, a medical resource on the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s website.
They are about three times more likely to affect female babies than males.
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“The classification of conjoined twins is based on the location of their connection and the organs they share,” Dr. Marschall Runge, MD, PhD, CEO of Michigan Medicine — who did not treat Dell or the babies — told Fox News Digital.
“Survival rates vary significantly depending on the ability to successfully separate shared organs.”
Twins who share a heart or components of the brain have the highest mortality rates, the doctor noted.
Matthew and Breana Dell are pictured with their 1-year-old son, Dallas Dell. (Breana Dell)
“Even if they survive the initial separation, many face long-term health challenges and may require additional surgeries,” Runge said.
The overall survival rate for conjoined twins after separation is approximately 75%, but this can vary greatly depending on several factors, according to the doctor.
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A majority of conjoined twins (28%) are fused at the thorax (torso) and abdomen, StatPearls states.
Another 18.5% are joined at the thorax and 10% are joined at the abdomen.
Conjoined twins are three times more likely to occur with female babies than males. (Mandy Daniel Photography)
In 10% of cases, there is a heteropagus (parasitic twin), in which one twin is less developed than the other.
In 6% of cases, the twins are joined at the cranium.
Lifted by support
Throughout their journey, the Dells said they received a great deal of support from their family, friends and church, as well as people reaching out on social media.
“We have an amazing church family that has surrounded us in love and prayers,” Dell said.
She also created a Facebook page for the girls, where people rallied around the family and sent messages of encouragement and love.
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After their time with the babies came to an end, the Dells were faced with a long road to healing and recovery.
The area where the babies are joined is a key factor in whether they are candidates for separation surgery. (Mandy Daniel Photography)
“It comes and goes,” Dell said. “Sometimes I feel OK, and then I’ll have really hard moments, hard days or even hard weeks.”
She also said, “I definitely miss my babies.”
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The Dells are planning to grow their family in the future.
“We definitely want more children,” Dell told Fox News Digital.
“I got the question a lot: ‘Can’t you just save one of them?’” Breana Dell said. “It wasn’t possible, because they couldn’t live without each other.” (Mandy Daniel Photography)
A previous conjoined twin pregnancy does not increase the risk of a recurrence, according to StatPearls.
Fox News Digital reached out to Northside Hospital in Atlanta for comment.
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A deadly, drug-resistant fungus already spreading rapidly through U.S. hospitals is becoming even more threatening worldwide, though there may be hope for new treatments, according to a new scientific review.
Candida auris (C. auris), often described as a “superbug fungus,” is spreading globally and increasingly resisting human immune systems, Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) researchers said in a review published in early December.
The findings reinforce prior CDC warnings that have labeled C. auris an “urgent antimicrobial threat” — the first fungal pathogen to receive that designation — as U.S. cases have surged, particularly in hospitals and long-term care centers.
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Approximately 7,000 cases were identified across dozens of U.S. states in 2025, according to the CDC, and it has reportedly been identified in at least 60 countries.
Candida auris is a drug-resistant fungus spreading in hospitals worldwide. (Nicolas Armer/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
The review, published in Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, helps explain why the pathogen is so difficult to contain and warns that outdated diagnostics and limited treatments lag behind. It was conducted by Dr. Neeraj Chauhan of the Hackensack Meridian CDI in New Jersey, Dr. Anuradha Chowdhary of the University of Delhi’s Medical Mycology Unit and Dr. Michail Lionakis, chief of the clinical mycology program at the National Institutes of Health.
Their findings stress the need to develop “novel antifungal agents with broad-spectrum activity against human fungal pathogens, to improve diagnostic tests and to develop immune- and vaccine-based adjunct modalities for the treatment of high-risk patients,” the researchers said in a statement.
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“In addition, future efforts should focus on raising awareness about fungal disease through developing better surveillance mechanisms, especially in resource-poor countries,” they added. “All these developments should help improve the outcomes and prognosis of patients afflicted by opportunistic fungal infections.”
Candida auris can survive on skin and hospital surfaces, allowing it to spread easily. (iStock)
First identified in 2009 from a patient’s ear sample in Japan, C. auris has since spread to dozens of countries, including the U.S., where outbreaks have forced some hospital intensive care units to shut down, according to the researchers.
The fungus poses the greatest risk to people who are already critically ill, particularly those on ventilators or with weakened immune systems. Once infected, about half of patients may die, according to some estimates.
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Unlike many other fungi, C. auris can survive on human skin and cling to hospital surfaces and medical equipment, allowing it to spread easily in healthcare settings.
“It is resistant to multiple antifungal drugs, and it tends to spread in hospital settings, including on equipment being used on immunocompromised and semi-immunocompromised patients, such as ventilators and catheters,” Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst and clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone, previously told Fox News Digital.
Scientists say the unique cell wall structure of C. auris makes it harder to kill. (iStock)
It is also frequently misdiagnosed, delaying treatment and infection control measures.
“Unfortunately, symptoms such as fever, chills and aches may be ubiquitous, and it can be mistaken for other infections,” Siegel said.
In September, he said intense research was ongoing to develop new treatments.
Only four major classes of antifungal drugs are currently available, and C. auris has already shown resistance to many of them. While three new antifungal drugs have been approved or are in late-stage trials, researchers warn that drug development has struggled to keep pace with the fungus’s evolution.
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Despite the sobering findings, there is still room for cautious optimism.
The fungus can cling to skin and hospital surfaces, aiding its spread. (iStock)
In separate research published in December, scientists at the University of Exeter in England discovered a potential weakness in C. auris while studying the fungus in a living-host model.
The team found that, during infection, the fungus activates specific genes to scavenge iron, a nutrient it needs to survive, according to their paper, published in the Nature portfolio journal Communications Biology in December.
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Because iron is essential for the pathogen, researchers believe drugs that block this process could eventually stop infections or even allow existing medications to be repurposed.
“We think our research may have revealed an Achilles’ heel in this lethal pathogen during active infection,” Dr. Hugh Gifford, a clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter and co-author of the study, said in a statement.
New research is underway to develop better treatments and diagnostics for C. auris. (iStock)
As researchers race to better understand the fungus, officials warn that strict infection control, rapid detection and continued investment in new treatments remain critical.
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Health experts emphasize that C. auris is not a threat to healthy people.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the CDI researchers and additional experts for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Angelica Stabile contributed reporting.
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The New York State Department of Health reported a record surge in influenza activity, with 71,123 positive flu cases recorded statewide during the week ending December 20.
Health officials said the figure represents the highest number of flu cases ever reported in a single week since influenza became a reportable disease in New York in 2004.
State health data show the weekly total reflects a 38% increase from the previous reporting period, signaling a rapidly intensifying flu season.
There have been 189,312 reported positive flu cases so far this season, while influenza-related hospitalizations rose 63% in the most recent week.
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New York reported the highest weekly total of cases ever recorded since influenza became reportable in 2004. (iStock)
“We are seeing the highest number of flu cases ever recorded in a single week in New York state,” Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said in a press release.
There have been 189,312 reported flu cases so far this season, with influenza-related hospitalizations increasing 63% in the most recent week. (iStock)
Earlier this month, the department declared influenza prevalent statewide, a designation that requires unvaccinated health care workers to wear masks in patient care settings.
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Health officials continue to emphasize that vaccination remains the most effective way to prevent severe illness and hospitalization from influenza.
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New Yorkers who have not yet received a seasonal flu shot are still encouraged to do so, with experts saying vaccination can offer protection even later in the season.
Health officials continue to urge New Yorkers to take preventive steps, including vaccination and staying home when sick, to limit further spread. (iStock)
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To help limit further spread, the department advises individuals experiencing flu-like symptoms — including fever, cough, sore throat, or body aches — to stay home. State health officials also recommend frequent handwashing, using hand sanitizer, and avoiding close contact with sick individuals.
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For those who become ill, officials say antiviral medications are available and are most effective when started within 48 hours of symptom onset.
Health officials also added that people at higher risk for complications should contact a health care provider promptly for evaluation and possible treatment.
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The department noted that flu activity typically peaks in January, meaning case counts could continue to climb in the weeks ahead.
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