Vienna Girardi has suffered a miscarriage. The Bachelor alum, 31, shared the heartbreaking loss of her twin girls in an emotional Facebook post on Sunday, August 13, calling it “the hardest thing I have ever had to write.”
The reality personality explained that on August 3, her perinatologist noticed that she showed signs of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, but that the condition appeared to have improved over the previous week. According to the Mayo Clinic, this complication, which can occur when expecting identical twins, causes one baby to receive too much blood and the other too little, and sometimes requires “aggressive intervention” and possible early delivery.
“That evening my water broke due to the amniotic sacs rupturing,” Girardi revealed. “I spent the next 2 days in the hospital trying everything to save them.”
She went on to explain that doctors told her she would have to deliver the babies, she’d be risking her own life, but that at only 18 weeks, the twins had “a very slim chance under 5%” that they could survive. “So as any mother would do I did everything to save them but their hearts stopped beating on day two which is also when I went into septic shock with 104 fever.”
“My little angels went to Heaven on Aug 5th and I was rushed into the OR for emergency surgery and was in the ICU for 4 days,” Girardi continued.
The Orlando-based architectural and engineering recruiter added that after days of lying in bed heartbroken, she decided after speaking with a doctor to donate the twins to science in the hopes that scientists will one day learn more about TTTS and prevent it. Girardi explained, “This was the hardest decision I have ever had to make in my life but I knew my little girls were in Heaven already and the pain I feel I would never want any mother to ever feel.”
“RIP My Sweet Angels,” she added. “Your mommy will never forget you and I loved you both with my entire heart.”
The Bachelor alum’s rep tells Us Weekly in a statement: “Vienna has a long and arduous journey to recovery, yet she is strong and knows her children are at rest in heaven. Her heart is heavy. … It is a difficult and emotional time. Please respect her privacy and allow her time to grieve.”
Girardi first opened up about her high-risk pregnancy exclusively with Us earlier this month. “They share a placenta, which means they also share nutrients,” she explained, while also revealing the twins’ gender and her excitement about expecting two little girls. “One baby can potentially take more from the other, so I have monitoring every two weeks.”
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