Why world’s oldest parents are in ICU 10 days after they were blessed with twins
By Kimathi Mutegi and Agencies
The world’s oldest parents are both in intensive care more than 10 days after they were blessed with twins, it has been reported.
Seventy four-year-old Erramatti Mangayamma and her husband Raja Rao, 78, stirred controversy when they revealed the former had successfully delivered girls on September 5.
The Indian couple married in 1962 but had never been parents until successfully undergoing IVF treatment.
“Due to the grace of God and doctors, I am the proud father of two baby girls,” Rao announced hours after, his wife was hailed as the world’s oldest new mother.
However, a day after the girls were born, Rao reportedly collapsed from a heart attack and was taken into intensive care in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
According to The Times, Mangayamma has also remained in intensive care since the birth of their children. The twins have not been named and are staying with the couple’s relatives.
“We are the happiest couple on earth today,” Rao had earlier said. Mangayamma surpassed the age of the previous oldest mum in the world, Daljinder Kaur, from Punjab, India, who gave birth at the age of 70 in 2016. She was given the all clear for IVF treatment from Ahalya Hospital last year.
As Mangayamma had already been through menopause, doctors used donor eggs and fertilised them with her husband’s sperm.
Doctors have declined to provide details on their current condition but Mangayamma’s niece, Lakshmi Bhia, told The Times that both are stable.