The family of the formerly conjoined Mata twins is asking for love and prayers from their community. After many months of health and progress back in Littlefield, Adeline “Addy” Faith and Knatalye Hope Mata both came down with Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. Now the twins are being treated at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
Elysse Mata, the twins’ mother, explained Wednesday that first Knatalye came down with RSV last week and was admitted to a South Plains hospital as a preventative measure.
“But due to her under-developed lungs and her medical history, she was transported to Houston for the proper care that she needed,” Elysse said.
Knatalye’s sister Addy also came down with RSV, she was flown immediately to Houston.
“When they got to Houston they tried to stabilize [Knatalye] as much as they could without going to ECMO, ECMO was her only choice, we’ll take it day by day she’ll be on it for probably two weeks,” said Elysse Mata.
ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) is a machine which performs the function of someone’s lungs. Elysse added that they are starting to see some improvements in Knatalye’s X-rays.
“She’s still on really high sedation meds, she’s stable, she’s going in the right direction,” Elysse said.
She explained that Addy is on an oscillator high frequncy machine to help her breathe.
The twins, who will be three years old in April, prior to this sickness Addy had just learned to walk and was catching up with her twin sister.
Elysse said their family may be in Houston for several weeks as the girls fight the virus.
“This is a long road especially, with Knatalye,” she said.
“Just pray for us, it’s scary,” Elysse asked of her community members and loved ones. “[Knatalye is] pretty much on life support, there are a lot of risks that come from being on ECMO but if she can pull through this it will be worth the benefit, we just need a lot of prayers. Mentally, emotionally, physically it’s exhausting,”
Friday February 17 will mark two years since the twins’ historic 26-hour separation surgery. They will spend their “seperaversary” with the familiar faces on staff at Texas Children,s who helped them through that surgery.
