TWINS who died less than an hour after birth died as a result of prematurity - indirectly caused by a medical intervention procedure which was performed to try and save them, an inquest concluded.

A six-hour inquest heard how Faith Summer Peacock and Reggie Robert Peacock died 53 minutes after being born on August 1, 2019 at Dorset County Hospital.

The twins died of prematurity which senior coroner for Dorset Rachael Griffin said was an 'indirect result of multifetal reduction surgery'.

On May 13, Rebecca Peacock, 26, of Lyme Regis, found out she was pregnant with quintuplets after natural contraception, an extremely rare occurrence.

Mrs Peacock and husband Peter, 35, were referred by DCH fetal consultant Dr Robert Sandy to have surgery at St George's Hospital, London, on June 5, 2019.

Dr Sandy told the couple the operation would reduce the number of fetuses from five to two, which would lower chances of miscarriage to between 5 and 12 per cent, and increase the chance of healthier lives for the surviving babies.

St George's surgeon Dr Amarnath Bhide told the inquest he spoke to Mr and Mrs Peacock about the risks involved.

The surgery involved stopping the tissue from growing in three of the fetuses, but this led to an inflammation in the womb.

Mrs Peacock suffered discomfort and on June 21 she was taken to University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff fearing something was wrong.

The inquest heard the inflammation had affected the gestational sac of one of the remaining fetuses, but evidence from the inquest revealed a test on June 24 showed there was 'no abnormalities'.

On July 8, a scan at DCH revealed the sac of 'twin two' had ruptured, but the other was normal.

According to evidence from DCH consultant Dr Francis Afadapa, Mrs Peacock was in and out of hospital between July 18-July 26 with an infection caused by the inflammation.

On July 29, a scan showed the sacs of both babies, which contained no amniotic fluid, had ruptured.

On August 1, Mrs Peacock's condition was deteriorating and she was induced with medicine. After 24 weeks of pregnancy she prematurely gave birth to Faith and Reggie by caesarean section at 8.50pm, but the twins sadly died at 9.43pm.

All three doctors that gave evidence agreed on balance the probable cause of death was related to the mulitfetal reduction surgery.

Coroner Mrs Griffin said: "The pregnancy of five is a rare occurrence. On the balance of probability I believe the best chance of survival was to reduce the fetuses from five to two. I believe the parents were aware of the risks involved. The inflammatory response was a result of medical treatment from the multifetal reduction surgery on June 5. Therefore, the surgery was an indirect cause of the deterioration of Mrs Peacock's health during pregnancy and the death of Faith and Reggie Peacock."

Speaking after the inquest Mrs Peacock said: "I would implore other families who are expecting five to not go through a multifetal reduction surgery and take the risk."

Mr Peacock said: "We went through with the operation after we were told [by Dr Sandy] there would be birth defects if we kept all five babies - this is the reason why we chose to have the operation."

The couple said they will now be concentrating on taking care of their twin daughters, who were born in 2017.

Dr Bihde, who has performed more than 250 multifetal reduction surgeries, had told the inquest chances of miscarriage for quadruplets was 42 per cent, and that there is no data for the survival of quintuplets, but it was 'safe to assume there is a very high chance of miscarriage'.

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