--- title: Sonogram Shows Unborn Child Holding Twin's Hand description: One twin, Mason, has a hole in his heart and an abnormal brain. canonical: https://time.com/4227908/sonogram-twins-holding-hands/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-17T19:04:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:09:52.697Z article:section: Health og:title: Sonogram Appears to Show Unborn Child Holding Dying Twin's Hand og:description: One twin, Mason, has a hole in his heart and an abnormal brain og:url: https://time.com/4227908/sonogram-twins-holding-hands/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sonogram Appears to Show Unborn Child Holding Dying Twin's Hand twitter:description: One twin, Mason, has a hole in his heart and an abnormal brain twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Sonogram Appears to Show Unborn Child Holding Dying Twin's Hand > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=29392ad5-790c-4a62-b460-ce98606ac4bc&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [Alex Heigl / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Alex Heigl / People Contributor Feb 17, 2016 7:04 PM UTC by [Alex Heigl / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Alex Heigl / People Contributor Feb 17, 2016 7:04 PM UTC Brittani and Ian McIntire didn’t plan on having any more children, but their six-week sonogram revealed that the Kansas couple was expecting twins: Mason and Madilyn. But each successive appointment just delivered more and more bad news: Mason has a hole in his heart and an abnormal brain, and his growth development is already proceeding much slower than it should. “He’s only weighing nine ounces and his sister is over two pounds,” Brittani told [FOX8](http://myfox8.com/2016/02/17/beautiful-sonogram-shows-dying-twin-holding-unborn-sisters-hand/). “His only chance of survival would be heart surgery but they wouldn’t do heart surgery because of his brain.” Tuesday, there was a brief glimmer of hope, though: “We didn’t really see much, she said there’s his hand and there’s her hand and it looks like they’re holding hands,” Brittani said. Sure enough, the couple’s most recent sonogram appears to show Mason’s much smaller hand wrapped around his sister’s finger. “We know we have a piece of them together that will last forever… and it’s special to have,” Ian told FOX8. “It’s just nice with everything going on… I know I’m holding him, I’m carrying him but I just want to be there for him,” Brittani added. “She’s the only one who can actually be there and is holding onto him… so it’s comforting to know that if he does pass, he won’t be alone.” _This_ [_article_](http://www.people.com/article/dying-twin-holds-siblings-hand-womb) _originally appeared on_ [_People.com_](http://www.people.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4227908/sonogram-twins-holding-hands/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4227908/sonogram-twins-holding-hands/"},"headline":"Sonogram Appears to Show Unborn Child Holding Dying Twin's Hand","datePublished":"2016-02-17T19:04:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:09:52.697Z","description":"\"She's the only one who can actually be there and is holding onto him\"","url":"https://time.com/4227908/sonogram-twins-holding-hands/","keywords":["Family","health"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Heigl / People"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/family/","name":"Family"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4227908/sonogram-twins-holding-hands/","name":"Sonogram Appears to Show Unborn Child Holding Dying Twin's Hand"}}]}] ```