Eight-month-old twins from Hayward Heath, West Sussex, recently met the surgeon who saved their lives even before they were born. The BBC reports how their mother, Katerina Ahouansou, at six months pregnant, during a routine scan, uncovered a serious issue with their development and blood supply.

Doctors diagnosed the twins with twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome or TTTS. It is a condition where one twin received more blood and nourishment than the other due to uneven blood vessel distribution in the placenta. In case there is no medical intervention, it could be fatal for both the twins.

A Specialist Steps In

This is when Ahouansou was referred to Professor Kypros Nicolaides at King’s College Hospital in London. Professor Nicolaides is a pioneer in fetal medicine and he specializes in a laser procedure that redistributes blood supply between twins in cases of TTTS.

When Ahouansou was scanned, Nicolaides observed that one of the twins were significantly smaller than the other. "There was a very high chance that if we did not intervene, both twins could die," he recalled.

An Operation No Less Than A Miracle

The life-saving laser surgery was performed and within a week the doctors saw an improvement with the twin who was smaller in size. When the twins were born, they weighed 1.5kg and 1.7kg. To recognize the efforts by the surgeon, Ahouansou named them Kai Kypros and Asher Nicolas after Professor Kypros Nicolaides.

Ahouansou also expressed deep gratitude for the professor's expertise and called him "proof that miracles can be performed by people who are devotees to their profession."

Professor Kypros Nicolaides has been at King’s College Hospital since 1980 and is widely regarded as a leader in fetal medicine. His groundbreaking research and development of screening and surgical techniques have saved countless lives.

Through his dedication, Professor Nicolaides has given many families hope, demonstrating how medical advancements continue to improve survival rates for complex fetal conditions like TTTS.

More about Twin-to-twin Transfusion Syndrome

As per the John Hopkins Medicine, TTTS is a rare pregnancy condition that affects identical twins or other multiples. It happens in pregnancies where twins share one placenta and a network of blood vessels that supply oxygen and nutrients essential for development in the womb. These pregnancies are known as monochorionic.

Sometimes, the blood vessels in the placenta are unevenly distributed, causing an imbalance in blood flow between the twins. The donor twin loses more blood than it receives, leading to malnutrition and potential organ failure. Meanwhile, the recipient twin gets an excess of blood, putting strain on the heart and increasing the risk of cardiac complications.

Impact on the Donor Twin

The donor twin loses blood volume (hypovolemia), reducing kidney function and urine production. This leads to low amniotic fluid levels (oligohydramnios) or, in severe cases, a complete absence (anhydramnios). Without proper blood circulation, the donor twin faces cardiovascular issues, increasing the risk of death.

Impact on the Recipient Twin

The recipient twin experiences excess blood volume (hypervolemia), causing increased urination and excessive amniotic fluid (polyhydramnios). The overworked heart struggles to handle the surplus blood, leading to cardiovascular dysfunction, heart failure, and, in extreme cases, death.

For nearly a year after her first son was born, Belinda Stischok did not fully believe she was alive. In her mind, several realities had folded into one, and the life she was living felt like something else entirely - more like an afterlife, a different timeline, anything but the present.

This was not a dream or an ordinary breakdown.

It was — a condition most new parents have never heard of until it is too late — and one that is suddenly back in public conversation because of the ongoing Lindsay Clancy trial.

Clancy, on trial in Massachusetts, has told the court she heard a male voice in her head telling her, again and again, to kill her three children. She did so, and then jumped from a second-floor window, an act that left her paralyzed. Her defense says doctors repeatedly failed to grasp how serious her condition was and sent her home with heavier doses of medication instead of real intervention.

Diary entries read in court this week described a mind "desperate to get a mental break." Prosecutors have rested; the trial is ongoing.

For mothers who have lived through something similar, the case is not abstract. Belinda is one of them. Today she is healthy, married to her husband Kyle, and raising two sons in Florida. But getting there took nearly a year of a psychosis so consuming that, at its worst, she did not recognize her own child.

A Textbook Pregnancy, Then Silence

Also read: Lessons From The Lindsay Clancy Case: Can Families Spot Early Signs Of Postpartum Psychosis?

There was nothing about Belinda's background that suggested trouble ahead. A former personal trainer and competitive bodybuilder, she describes herself and Kyle as disciplined about health, careful about routine.

"Worrying about a mental health episode was never on the forefront of my mind," she said. "It wasn't anything I even knew could happen."

Her pregnancy was heavily researched and carefully planned - she wanted an unmedicated, natural birth. That plan started slipping the moment doctors pushed to break her waters during labor, against her wishes, and her own physician was not even available for the delivery. Looking back, she calls that her first real red flag.

At home with a newborn, she pushed herself hard, insisting on shifts, spotless floors, and constant vigilance. "Rest was never in my vocabulary," she said.

At her six-week check-up, she was given the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, a routine nine-question screening. She lied on every answer. "You don't want to answer these questions and then hear, oh, you're not well, we're taking your baby," she explained. She never mentioned the test to Kyle. Even with the lies, she was flagged for mild depression — and dismissed it.

When Reality Started To Splinter

The real break did not happen for another nine months. Kyle began noticing things that made no sense — Belinda staring directly into the sun for minutes at a stretch, filling pages with disjointed writing and equations.

"It was very unnatural," he said. "The only thing I could relate it to is that your wife is being possessed, because it's no longer her."

From the inside, Belinda describes it as her timelines collapsing into each other. She stopped believing Kyle was her husband or that their son was their son. She believed she had already died, and that this new life - the one she had once been told medically impossible - was some form of afterlife.

It is a description close to what Clancy has reportedly told people close to her: an out-of-body sense of having left her own life. Both women have described hearing voices, being placed on shifting combinations of psychiatric drugs, and having thoughts of harming someone.

Belinda's first hospitalization came after she barricaded herself outside the nursery, terrified someone would hurt her baby. It was 2020, and because of the COVID-19 pandemic chaos, no one told Kyle where she had been taken. He had to call hospital after hospital to find her.

She was still breastfeeding and says she "begged for a breast pump" — instead, she was sedated. She was held 72 hours, sent home with medication she later threw out, and noticed her breast milk had turned a strange greenish-blue from the drugs. She spent days pumping and dumping before feeding her son again.

Two weeks later, after an argument with her husband in the middle of a rough night, she walked out of the house barefoot and kept going, hearing voices telling her there was "better for you on the other side." A friend spotted her and alerted Kyle, who called the police.

This time, she was held for nine days, medicated with the antipsychotic Abilify, and placed in isolation, at times without access to a bathroom. During that stretch, Kyle, frightened and out of options, took their son and left to stay elsewhere.

"He was protecting our child," Belinda said. "I have no resentment." Still, she says learning her husband and baby were gone was the hardest single moment of the entire experience.

What The System Missed

Read More: Why Miscarriage Needs Emotional Care At Par with Medical Treatment: Doctors Explain

What stays with both of them is how little warning they were given. "They hand you a pamphlet for the epidural," Belinda said.

"Why not hand me one on what it means if you're not sleeping, not eating, not showering?" She is also open about how quickly the system reached for medication over conversation. However, she credits later talk therapy with a postpartum specialist for helping her recover.

Watching Clancy's trial, Belinda sees both familiar and unfamiliar territory. She hesitates to call what Clancy has described pure psychosis, pointing out that Clancy was journaling and naming her distress as it happened — something Belinda says she was incapable of doing herself.

"When you're in psychosis, you're not aware enough to seek help," she said. "You're already gone."

Belinda and Kyle went on to have a second son, delivered at home under a midwife's strict instructions: rest, bond, nothing else. It made all the difference.

Kyle's advice to other fathers is simple: "Don't give up, there's a light at the end of the tunnel."

Belinda's, however, is about permission: "It's okay to not be okay. You just have to seek help when you notice it."

She is also wary of how the Clancy case might land on struggling new mothers. "It can help mothers understand this can happen to anyone," she said, "but I worry the hate people are throwing at Lindsay online will stop other moms from speaking up."

For Belinda, that fear is exactly why she chose to tell her own story out loud.

With the onset of the monsoon season, the heat of the summer is no longer an issue; however, it ushers in an invisible threat to public health. With stagnant water being the perfect breeding ground for Aedes and Anopheles mosquitoes, diseases such as dengue, malaria, and chikungunya cases increase dramatically among both rural and urban areas in India.

For the young ones who have not yet developed a fully functional immune system, a simple bite could cause dehydration, high fever, and other serious complications. However, in an effort to ensure their children are protected, the mothers use harmful insecticides which inadvertently end up putting their sensitive skin and breathing tract in harm’s way.

The Hidden Danger: Chemical Exposure vs. Vector Risk

The skin of a baby is 30% thinner than that of an adult and thus highly permeable, making it possible for chemicals absorbed through the skin to enter the body very fast.

It has been emphasized by international pediatric guidelines that babies under two months old should never come into contact with any chemical repellent on their skin.

Also read: Beware! Common Mistakes New Parents Make During Their Baby’s First Monsoon

The Gold Standard: Physical Barriers Over Chemical Sheaths

With regard to safety in infants, there is no question that non-chemical physical barriers are always the foremost priority. The use of cot, stroller, and window nettings that have apertures smaller than 1.2mm prevent mosquitoes from getting access to the sleeping areas without compromising air flow and without releasing any toxic chemicals into the nursery environment.

In addition, it is important to note that careful selection of appropriate clothes is essential; this means choosing loose-fitting and light coloured full body cotton clothes for the infant as they will naturally protect them as dark colours attract mosquitoes and tight clothes will give them easy access to the body for biting.

Also read: Milestone In Kala-Azar Treatment: WHO Updates Treatment Guidelines, Recommends Shorter & Safer Regimens

Smart Protocol: Fabric-Only & Botanical Innovation

As a method of active protection outdoors or for biting time in the early mornings and evenings, parents must resort to fabric application only. The natural roll-ons and patches that use botanicals such as Citronella, Eucalyptus, and Lemongrass oil must be used only on the outside of the hem of clothes, strollers, or cot corners and never on the body of the baby.

Also, the use of chemical vaporizers or coil repellants in an enclosed nursery where the child is sleeping must be avoided as these are inhaled and can cause irritation of the air passage.

By Dr. Bharat Jain, Senior Consultant Paediatrician and Neonatologist, Cocoon Hospital, Chandigarh

Vitamins and minerals are often consumed for better health and immunity, but a new US study is drawing focus to a danger that may get overlooked. The danger is toxicity if vitamins and minerals are ingested in excessive quantity, particularly for children.

Researchers found that 1,961 children were hospitalised for vitamin and mineral toxicity over a three-year period, according to findings presented at the Pediatric Hospital Medicine 2026 meeting in Kansas City, Missouri.

The researchers used data from the federal Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Kids’ Inpatient Database, which captures hospital admissions involving children across the US.

But the figure may represent only a part of the problem. “Our study probably only scratched the surface,” lead researcher Marina Masciale, MD, MPH, of Baylor College of Medicine, said while presenting the findings.

Most Poisoning Cases Were Due To Intentional Ingesting

One of the most interesting findings was that the majority of hospital admissions due to vitamin and mineral toxicity was due to intentional ingestion.

That makes the issue different from a child accidentally swallowing one or two tablets. Researchers say the findings highlight the need to consider supplements when assessing children who may deliberately ingest potentially harmful substances.

The database also captured only supplements for which there was a specific toxicity-related ICD-10 diagnostic code. This means poisonings involving supplements that were not coded in this way may not have been included. As a result, the researchers believe the true number of affected children could be substantially higher.

Also read: Is Your Child Suddenly Sluggish, Clumsy? Signs Of Juvenile Arthritis Parents Miss

Why Are Children Getting Poisoned If Vitamins Are Supposed To Be Safe?

The body requires many micronutrients in relatively small quantities. Some can become harmful when taken in excessive amounts, particularly certain fat-soluble vitamins that can accumulate in the body.

Minerals can also cause toxicity when consumed in excessive quantities. The symptoms and severity depend on the substance, dose and how quickly treatment is provided.

This is why supplements should not be popped like harmless candies simply because they are sold over the counter.

Also read: Too Much Cow’s Milk Linked To Severe Iron Deficiency In Toddlers, Including Three Deaths

Why Children Are Particularly Vulnerable?

Many supplements also come in colourful, flavoured or chewable forms, making them particularly attractive to younger children.

But the new findings highlight another concern: older children and adolescents may deliberately consume large quantities of supplements, meaning prevention cannot rely only on keeping bottles out of reach.

Parents and caregivers should therefore store vitamins, minerals and other supplements securely and treat them like medicines rather than everyday food products.

What Should Parents If They Suspect An Overdose?

If a child may have swallowed a large amount of vitamins or minerals, parents must not wait for symptoms to appear.

The exact risk depends on what was taken, how much was consumed and the child’s age and weight. Some toxic effects may not be immediately evident.

Medical professionals may need information from the supplement label, including the ingredients and strength, to determine the appropriate treatment course.