Photo Of Newborn Twins Hugging In NICU Goes Viral

Photo of twins hugging after meeting up for the first time outside of the womb goes viral

It’s a photo that would tug on anyone’s heartstrings. Newborn twins Mason and Hawk Buchmeyer cuddled up together at 11 days old, their first time meeting outside the womb that was their home for months. But it’s the story behind the photo that will really hit you in the feelings.

Hawk was born with CDH, or Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia. According to the National Institutes of Health, CDH is a rare condition that occurs in less than 1,600 cases a year, or in less than than .001% of newborns. CDH happens when there’s a hole in the diaphragm which allows abdominal organs to move into the chest. This prevents the lungs from developing normally and resulting in the lungs being under developed.

Hawk is currently intubated and on a ventilator. The family has started a Facebook page to keep family and friends updated on the boys. “The whole ordeal is as bad as you can get,” the boys’ father, Tommy Buchmeyer told WWMT. “The doctors aren’t giving us false hope. We know it’s a long shot.”

The night this picture was taken, their mother, Brandy Guettler, said it was actually Mason who was fussy and needed to be comforted. One of the nurses suggested they lay Mason next to Hawk. “So we laid him there and all of the sudden as soon as he felt Hawk, he reached his arm out and grabbed him and just started to smile. The two of them knew they were there for each other.”

As a former NICU parent myself I know there’s another reason to love this photo. Yes, seeing Mason clearly happy and hugging his brother is touching and sweet, but it’s the fact that these boys are being photographed together for the first time that makes this picture really special.

When you find out you’re expecting twins, you start to think of the babies as one unit. But if one of both of your babies ends up spending time in the NICU, suddenly they’re not “the twins” like they were inside your belly, they’re two separate babies with possibly two very different futures. Like Mason and Hawk, one of my sons was more medically frail than his brother. While his condition wasn’t nearly as serious as Hawk’s once they were born, my sons didn’t see each other again until they both came home from the hospital. There was a point in time when I wasn’t sure if I’d ever have a picture of them together. A photo of newborn twins in the NICU together is truly something to treasure.

We don’t want to brag but Hawk has had a good two days! His belly isn’t that swollen anymore from surgery and he’s been…

Posted by Mason & Hawk on Saturday, September 3, 2016

Our thoughts and well wishes are with little Hawk and the rest of his family. And we know that his brother Mason is rooting for him most of all.

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