A couple has welcomed twins born from what may be the longest-frozen embryos to ever result in a live birth, according to abc7chicago. The twins, Lydia and Timothy Ridgeway, were born on October 31 in Oregon, US from embryos frozen nearly 30 years ago on April 22, 1992, another report by the Independent said. The couple, Rachel and Philip Ridgeway, was overwhelmed with joy after they received the newborn babies and told CNN that the twins are their oldest children even though they are their smallest ones. “There is something mind-boggling about it.I was 5 years old when God gave life to Lydia and Timothy, and he’s been preserving that life ever since,” Philip Ridgeway said. “In a sense, they’re our oldest children, even though they’re our smallest children,” Philip Ridgeway added. The couple from Portland, Oregon has four other children, aged 8, 6, 3 and almost 2. Parents Lydia and Timothy Ridgeway welcomed twins born from embryos frozen 30 years ago. pic.twitter.com/iBH09FybKl — ABC30 Fresno (@ABC30) November 22, 2022 The Independent report said an anonymous couple donated the embryos to National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC) in Knoxville, Tennessee in 2007. From 1992 to 2007, the embryos were kept at a West Coast fertility lab. Intriguingly, Rachel and Philip Ridgeway were merely three and five years old when their twins were conceived using IVF. The donor male was in his 50s and the female was a 34-year-old. Citing the NEDC, the Independent report said the twins have set a new record for the transfer of the longest-frozen embryo leading to a birth. Earlier, the record was set by the Knoxville-based center in 2020, after a 27-year-old embryo resulted in birth and another 24-year-old embryo led to the birth of her sister. Attributing the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the report said embryos can be frozen till 55 years from the day they were first kept in storage and no evidence points out that embryos get impacted by the duration of time they are frozen for.
