‘It's an impossible decision...'

Nick and Chelsea Torres on making the agonising choice of whether or not to separate their conjoined twin daughters

- IAN MACEWAN

EXTRAORDINARY TWINS NEW WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY / ITV / 9PM / EPS 1-2 of 2 / FACTUAL

As a parent, it’s natural to worry about whether you are making the right decisions for your child’s future. But for those caring for conjoined twins, deciding whether or not to separate them can be a matter of life and death.

In ITV’s new series Extraordinary Twins, Idaho couple Nick and Chelsea Torres seek help in coming to a decision about their daughters, Callie and Carter, by speaking to others who have faced the same dilemma.

Narrated by Sheridan Smith, the two-parter also follows Great Ormond Street surgeons David Dunaway and Noor Ul Owase Jeelani, as they operate on Turkish twin boys, Derman and Yigit, who are joined at the head.

POLAR OPPOSITES

Mum-of-four Chelsea learned that her unborn twins were conjoined when she was eight weeks pregnant, and was warned that they were unlikely to survive.

‘All of a sudden, you’re at the hospital ready to give birth to your babies, who are supposed to die within 24 hours,’ she recalls. ‘I was prepared to bury my children the day that they were born.’