World’s Most Premature Twins Guinness Record: Ontario Twins Defy Odds to Celebrate 1st Birthday

Adiah Laelynn and Adrial Luka Nadarajah from Ajax, Ontario are the world’s most premature twins, according to Guinness World Records.

Guinness World Records

Adiah Laelynn and Adrial Luka Nadarajah were born, weighing only 330 grams (11.6 oz) and 420 grams (14.8 oz), respectively at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto on March 4, 2022.

Their birth was 126 days premature, making them the most premature twins in the world. They are also the lightest twins at birth, with a combined weight of 750 grams (26.45 oz).

Behind the world record is a story of a medical miracle, care by Toronto Mount Sinai Hospital staff, perseverance and unwavering will of the parents Kevin and Shakina Rajendram.

Shakina Rajendram experienced premature labour after just 21 weeks and 5 days of pregnancy. The doctors at the local hospital informed her that the pregnancy was a loss, and there was no chance of saving her twins.

Shakina said in the CMA journal, “A nurse gave me a basin for the washroom to “catch” the babies if they “slipped out.” No words could capture the emotional, mental and physical trauma we experienced.”

In Canada, neonatal intensive care facilities usually provide resuscitation and active intensive care to infants born at or after 23 weeks’ gestation after consulting with the parents. This is because there is a high risk of mortality and considerable potential for neurosensory and developmental health problems in infants who receive such care before they reach 23 weeks’ gestation.

Shakina and Kevin, who lost their first pregnancy a few months earlier, requested a transfer to Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. Mount Sinai Hospital is one of the few centres in Canada which provides resuscitation and active care for babies born at 22 weeks gestation.

The Nadarajah twins, Adiah and Adrial, were born at a gestational age of exactly 22 weeks, breaking a record for being the world’s most premature twins. Had they been born just one hour earlier, no attempt would have been made to save their lives.

Upon being admitted to Mount Sinai Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), both twins faced a difficult journey due to challenges in their fluid and skin management, ventilation, and complications with intraventricular hemorrhage and sepsis. The twins’ skin was also extremely thin, immature, and transparent, making their prognosis at 22 weeks’ gestation guarded, especially for twins.

The twins underwent various medical procedures, and their stay was complicated by multiple challenges.

Shakina, in the CMA journal article, Dilemmas of modern neonatology: care of extremely preterm infants said, “Even if there were limitations to the medical intervention the babies could receive, we believed other factors could substantially improve their outcomes. Our Christian faith is central to who we are, so we rallied friends and family from around the world to pray for our twins. We decided that, no matter how we felt, we would always smile, laugh, sing and celebrate every milestone with the babies.”

The parents spent up to 12 hours each day by the twins’ sides, singing and holding their hands.

After spending 161 days in the NICU, Adiah was cleared to be discharged, with Adrial following a week later. Both twins were breathing on their own and fully orally fed without any support of modern technology.

As the youngest surviving twins by gestational age and birth weight ever treated at the Mount Sinai NICU, the twins’ journey is also a testament to the hospital’s commitment to providing the best care possible for premature babies and their families.