Triplets Hunter, Jackson and Kaden all had surgery before they turned three months.
For first-time parents Mike and Amy Howard, the first shock was that they were expecting triplets.
The couple, from New York, hadn’t been having fertility treatment. When Amy went in for an ultrasound during her pregnancy, the technician discovered a second fetus, then a third.
Amy says she cried hysterically.
“I was terrified,” she told Today. “It took me a little bit of time to get used to the idea, to be honest.”
Hunter, Jackson and Kaden were born last October. Hunter and Jackson are identical, and Kaden is fraternal. It was just days after the birth that doctors noticed something unusual about the triplets’ skulls. Jackson and Hunter had a big bump at the back of theirs, while Kaden’s head was a triangular shape.
The Howards were told their sons all had craniosynostosis, a rare condition that can limit brain growth, affect vision and cause seizures. Hunter and Jackson had sagittal synotosis, while Kaden had an even rarer form, metopic synostosis.
“In plain English, it just means the skull fused early,” paediatric neurosurgeon Dr David Chesler of Stony Brook Children’s hospital explained to Newsday.