NY Triplets With Same Rare Skull Deformity Recovering Well After Surgery, Make Medical History

A set of triplets with the same rare skull deformity showed positive signs of recovery following their corrective surgery. Jackson, Hunter and Kaden Howard from New York, who were born last October 2016, had craniosynostosis and they just made medical history.

Craniosynostosis results in the bones in the skull joining together prematurely inside the uterus, as per CDC. Thus, an infant with this condition suffers from misshaped head and an underdeveloped brain. The condition could also lead to limited brain function when not detected and corrected earlier. Craniosynostosis occurs in one in 2,000 to 2,500 births only.

The triplet's parents, Amy and Michael Howard, ages 38 and 41 respectively, noticed the malformation as soon as the babies were born and were told the boys needed surgery. Identical twin brothers Jackson and Hunter had sagittal synostosis, the most common form of craniosynostosis where their heads were long and narrow. Their fraternal twin brother Kaden had metopic synostosis or a triangular-shaped forehead, as per Fox News.

Doctors led by Dr. David Chesler who operated on the triplets at the Stony Brook University Hospital said the chances of this happening to triplets was one in 500 trillion, as per CBS New York. Jackson, Hunter and Kaden underwent the operation nine weeks after their birth in what would be the first-ever craniosynostosis performed on triplets.

Now at nearly six months, the boys seem to be doing well as they have hit milestones typical of babies their age. The triplets, however, will have to wear specially-fitted helmets 23 hours a day for six to nine more months.

"They don't mind the helmets, the surgery went great, I don't even think they really were in too much pain," one of their parents said. The triplets are the Howard couple's first babies.

The parents also said Amy's pregnancy went without any problems to indicate the triplets would have a deformity. The boys were also conceived naturally and not through fertility treatments, as per Today.