The parents of a "beautiful" tot who reached his first birthday "against all odds" have been told by medics that there is nothing more they can do for him.
Devastated parents Gavin and Carrie Roberts tragically lost their baby son Tyler during pregnancy, but his identical twin brother Callum "beat all the odds" and survived.
However, the Anglesey couple has been dealt a second heartbreaking blow as doctors say that little Callum - who has had to fight complex health issues since he was born - is unlikely to survive much longer.
North Wales Live reports that the anguish began for Gavin and Carrie in the summer of 2020 when a routine ultrasound discovered that their twin babies were suffering from a rare and often life-threatening condition.
Medics discovered that identical twins Tyler and Callum had twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) - a rare pregnancy condition where twins share one placenta and a network of blood vessels.
In December 2020, the couple was transferred to King's College Hospital in London for closer monitoring due to concerns that Callum - who also has a serious heart condition - wasn't receiving enough blood from the shared placenta.
The couple were sent home from hospital to enjoy Christmas with daughters Keira, 8 and Chloe, 18, where they faced an anxious wait until their next scan.
Tragically, when they returned to hospital a few days later, they discovered that while Callum had become stronger, his brother Tyler had passed away.
With baby Tyler still passing blood to his brother in the womb, the grieving parents were forced to make the difficult decision of whether to continue with the pregnancy.
Dad Gavin said: "We had minutes to decide what to do with Callum, if we wanted to try and save him or not go ahead with it.
"Callum had a blood transfusion into the blood the umbilical chord to try and save him, but we were told at that point that it would take a miracle for him to survive."
Against all odds, the parents were told a week later that the blood transfusion had worked and Callum had regained some strength.
The identical brothers were born together at 29 weeks -Tyler was born sleeping at 1lb 5oz, and Callum weighed 2lb 7oz.
What followed was months in hospital where Callum continued to defy the odds.
Gavin said: "When he was born we were told he wouldn't survive that day, then we were told he wouldn't make it past four weeks.
"Then he got sepsis and he got really poorly but he made it through that. He then had more operations to try and fix his heart before having open heart surgery."
Despite exceeding doctors' expectation throughout his short life, Gavin says Callum "needs another miracle."
He explained: "Because he was born with a singe ventricle heart and a problem with his lungs, they've said as he grows his heart will damage his lungs, and eventually he'll need more and more oxygen until he can't give any more.
"We've been told there's nothing more that can be done and he’s on an end of life plan with no timescale.
"Our family of five are all home together and I wish I could be happy about it, but I just can't."
Baby Callum takes up to ten medications a day and is on 24-hour oxygen to help his breathing.
Doctors can't say how long Callum will live, but dad Gavin says he tries not to worry too much about what will happen next.
He said: "I can't predict the future, not even the cardiologist can predict the future.
"Callum's had such a difficult time and yet here he is and he's doing really well at the moment.
"Whatever happens and when it happens, I'm hoping in the future, that I will be grateful that we had all that time they said we wouldn't have.
"I'm definitely not at that point yet where I feel grateful for everything we're going through, but maybe one day I'll be proud of how hard we fought for Callum every step of the way.
"We spent the first day of his life thinking he wouldn't survive that day, but now he's one and still going.
"Miracles do happen, they happen every single day."
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