The Daily Dispatch

When Breckenridge twins Paige and Ella Hirschey were born nearly two years ago, complications were evident from the start.

During her pregnancy, Christine Hirschey awoke one morning to find herself leaking fluid from Paige's amniotic sac. Hirschey was kept in the hospital for about a week and was forced to give a premature birth.

Afterward, both twins spent a significant amount of time at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Fargo — eight and six months, respectively — and struggled to maintain their lives. The twins had damaged lungs due to bronchopulmonary dysplasia.

"The main concern was their lungs... (doctors) just couldn't make it work," Hirschey said. "They gave us a 40 to 50 percent chance of survival."

But Hirschey credits the March of Dimes for helping her twins receive doses of much-needed surfactant to help their lungs develop properly.

"If it wasn't for that, they wouldn't be here," she said.

The local March of Dimes branch is holding a walk Saturday, March 28 at the Clair T. Blikre Activities Center, Wahpeton, and Hirschey, who has a team called the "Hirschey Twins," represents the North Dakota State Ambassador Family this year.

At the NICU, the family suffered through observing their second set of twins experience jaundice, constant blood transfusions and ventilator assistance. Both contracted pneumonia from influenza that further damaged their lungs.

"Of course, we were always concerned with the neurological damage from the lack of oxygen," Hirschey said. "The other thing is that Ella had a hole in her heart, causing pulmonary hypertension... her body wasn't functioning properly, and it was hard for her lungs to keep her oxygen up."

When the twins finally arrived at home, they stayed hooked up to machines.

"We had cords and tubing everywhere," said Hirschey.

Since then, both are free of such constraints but Paige is still required to occasionally get back on oxygen due to illness.

She suffers from mild cerebral palsy now, but Ella's heart has been repaired and she has been oxygen free for about a month.

"Both girls have developmental delays, which Paige (experiences) more significantly due to brain damage from premature birth," she said.

Ella walks now and slowly but steadily catches up to her age group, while Paige started to walk right before Christmas. Despite her disability, Hirschey said they're pleased.

"We're very happy she's doing that at all," she said.

Hirschey said she and her husband, Kyle, credit their emotional survival to a strong family, community and church.

"We are able to actually look forward to the future now, knowing that we can handle this," she said. "We know there will be challenges, but you kind of have to tell yourself... we will do whatever we can to get them to be happy."

Registration for the walk begins at 9 a.m. For more information, call 701-235-5530 or visit www.marchforbabies.org for more information.

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