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Lauren Cohen has gotten a priceless gift for her 60th birthday: She delivered twins despite life-threatening health complications.
Cohen is believed to be the oldest woman in the world to have twins.
She's also among the oldest in the United States to bear children - and certainly the oldest in the tri-state area.
"I'm happy. I come out healthy, and the two babies came out healthy," said Cohen, who will celebrate her 60th birthday on Aug. 11.
The newborns are a boy and girl, Gregory and Giselle. They are getting loving care from Lauren and their proud dad, Frank Garcia, at the family's Paramus, N.J., home.
Incredibly, late motherhood is old hat to Cohen. She has another daughter, Raquel, who is 18 months old.
"I wanted Raquel to have a sibling," Cohen said. "I wasn't expecting twins. But that's what happened."
Like the twins, Raquel was conceived in-vitro with a donor egg.
Cohen also has a 27-year-old daughter, Renee.
"I got remarried. My husband did not have any children," Cohen said.
The twins were born prematurely on May 22 at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia.
"It was one of my dreams to have baby twins," said Garcia, who coyly indicated he's about 20 years younger than his wife. "It's like a miracle."
Garcia also praised his wife. "Lauren has guts. She's amazing," he said.
Cohen had serious complications during her pregnancy that she said were unrelated to her age. She says she is telling her story to The Post only to highlight the risks faced by pregnant women who previously underwent a Caesarean section.
"I'm grateful to the doctors at Columbia Presbyterian for saving my life and saving my babies' lives," Cohen said.
During her pregnancy, the placenta was wedged against the cervix - a condition called placenta previa. She also had a second problem called placenta percreta, in which the placenta grows through the uterus.
Because of these life-threatening conditions, Cohen was admitted to the hospital on March 28. A Caesarean section was planned for May 24, about six weeks shy of her due date.
"It was a compromise," Cohen said. "They were trying to balance between saving my life and the babies' lives."
Brainstorming on her condition were New York-Presbyterian's most skilled gynecologists and surgeons. But two days before the C-section date, the placenta broke through wall of Cohen's uterus, requiring emergency surgery. The complications required doctors to perform a hysterectomy.
"They made a high incision. They pulled the babies out from the abdomen area without the placenta being disturbed," the mom said.
But the delivery of the twins was the easy part.
The placenta was attached to the wall of her uterus "like crazy glue," Cohen said.
"They had to replace 33 pints of blood," she said.
The doctors who pulled off the cliffhanger surgery and her overall care were gyno-oncologist/cancer surgeon Thomas Herzog, and gyno-obstetricians Dorothy Smok and Mary D'Alton, chair of the hospital's OB-GYN department.
carl.campanile@nypost.com
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