To watch Andrew Heaney throw his curveball is to witness a small act of perfection.

Starting with a high kick, the former southpaw Texas Rangers pitcher (who signed to the Pittsburgh Pirates this spring), unwinds his trademark left-handed pitch with brute velocity. As the ball arcs across home plate, batters are rendered motionless by a deceptive pitch – like the one that helped the Texas Rangers win their first-ever World Series title in 2023.

Mr. Heaney, however, was not accustomed to being on the receiving end of a major curveball life threw at him and his expectant bride, Jordan, in 2023. At just 29 weeks into their first pregnancy, the couple’s peacefully gestating twins decided they wanted out of Mrs. Heaney’s womb. Immediately.

“When Jordan came in, she was already very dilated,” said Jamie Morgan, M.D., Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UT Southwestern, and Mrs. Heaney’s doctor. “We didn’t even have time to give her steroids, which is something we normally do to ready the lungs of premature babies. It was a very fast-moving situation.”

She spent about an hour undergoing an emergency cesarean section at UT Southwestern’s William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital. The hospital has 30 private Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) rooms, allowing parents to sleep in the room overnight with their newborns, building bonds that help babies grow stronger, research shows.

The Heaneys stared down a long road to recovery. After the birth, the babies were immediately put on ventilators to assist their premature lungs.

“Eleanor was the first to come out, and made a sound, and so you’re like, ‘OK, I think that’s good.’ I don’t know everything, but that has to be a very good sign. Now what about Olivia?” Mr. Heaney said, reflecting on their experience. “A minute later, identical twin Olivia emerged. They were making noises, so that was encouraging. But then again, I don’t know these things as well as the docs do.”

Expert hands

“I often tell my patients that pregnancy is the most dangerous thing a woman will experience in her life,” Dr. Morgan said. “Despite the common narrative that babies are usually carried to term without somehow adversely impacting the mother’s health, there is often a toll. And in carrying twins, the odds of a premature birth are significantly higher.”

Giving birth to twins is associated with a three-fold greater perinatal mortality than giving birth to a single baby. Prematurity is a main contributor, with 50% of twin pregnancies delivering before 37 weeks and 10% delivering before 32 weeks.

“When you’re facing potential risks, you’re hedging your bets by coming to a place like UT Southwestern,” Dr. Morgan said. “In a ‘normal’ pregnancy, everything might be great, you might be able to have a vaginal delivery at a small community hospital, and everything turns out fine. But women who end up needing the resources of either a Level 3 or Level 4 maternal center will have immediate access to surgical services and emergency interventions that others who’ve gone a different route – such as home birth – would spend precious time getting access to.”

Swaddled in the multicolored footprint blankets that preemies are so often seen in, Eleanor and Olivia settled in for what would be two months in the NICU. At one month, the twins were weaned from a ventilator to a CPAP machine, and then completely off breathing assistance and the removal of feeding tubes.

For the entire stay, however, Eleanor was slightly one step ahead of Olivia in terms of development. The NICU staff began preparing the couple, saying it was normal for one twin to go ahead of the other, so they were aware that Eleanor might come home first. But the twins had one more curveball for their parents.

“When we arrived on the day to check out, the nurses informed us that Eleanor’s alarm had gone off the previous night and that she wouldn’t be going home with Olivia,” Mrs. Heaney said. “I was so sad, but we tried to make Olivia’s moment special because she was graduating. Thankfully, Eleanor was right behind her and came home two days later.”

Babies see historic game

Only two weeks later, Mr. Heaney was called to play his pivotal part in the 2023 World Series. The match culminated in a four-games-to-one victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks to clinch the best-of-seven.

Mrs. Heaney recalled it was the height of RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, season, but with the girls vaccinated, she and the twins watched the series from the comfort of an enclosed hospitality suite – except for the final night when the Rangers played Game 5. Toward the end of what would be the final game, they ventured out in the ninth inning to watch dad win from the stands.

“I was soaked in champagne from the victory celebration, but pretty soon I was squatting in the outfield making bottles – right back to dad life,” Mr. Heaney said.

“Congrats on winning the World Series, honey, but your girls are hungry!” Mrs. Heaney said.

It was a surreal moment, alone in the outfield of a major league baseball stadium, when the couple felt gratitude at how far they had come.

Gratitude for care

“When the twins were born, we knew that they were going to be in the NICU for a couple of months. But the staff at UT Southwestern turned into family. They loved our girls as their own,” Mrs. Heaney said.

Feeling thankful for their good fortune – curveballs and all – the couple recently showed their gratitude to the Clements NICU and its staff with a generous donation.

“You don’t envision your baby needing the NICU, but we were very lucky to be at UT Southwestern when we did,” Mr. Heaney said. “I’m forever grateful for the care and treatment Jordan, Eleanor, and Olivia received there and for everybody who was involved in bringing our twins into the world and helping them grow big and strong.”