A woman believed to be the world's oldest first-time mother is in intensive care alongside her husband a mere week after she gave birth to twin girls in India, The Times reports.
New father Raja Rao, 78, suffered a heart attack, collapsing as a result, the day after his wife Erramatti Mangayamma, 74, gave birth via cesarean section.
The couple, who married in 1962, remained childless for 57 years - until September 5, which is when their daughters, conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF), were born.
Check out this footage of Erramatti Mangayamma in hospital on the day she gave birth to her twin baby girls:According to the Hindustan Times, Mangayamma was unable to produce eggs as she had already been through the menopause about 25 years ago. Therefore, an egg was used from a donor and fertilized with her husband’s sperm.
Doctors managed to successfully deliver the twin girls through a cesarean section. Per SWNS, Dr Sanakayyala Umashankar, director of Ahalya Hospital in Kothapet, said the birth went smoothly with no complications for both the mother and her newborns.
However, Mangayamma has since been taken to the intensive care unit so that she can better recover from the stress of the cesarean section procedure. Hours after the surgery, overjoyed dad Raja Rao expressed gratitude at the birth of his twin girls.
Unfortunately, he collapsed the next day and was taken to the Ahalya Nursing Home’s intensive care unit in Guntur in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, according to The Times.
The couple has been in intensive care together since early September. It remains unclear why Mangayamma is still in intensive care and no update on Raja Rao's condition has been given.
Her family has said that they are prepared to look after the girls if need be.
