BABY twin girls who were separated while they both battled life-threatening diseases were reunited at their Pontypool home.

Olivia and Georgia Osmond appeared happy and healthy when they were born by Caesarian section at Abergavenny’s Nevill Hall hospital on May 26.

But parents Rebecca Burgess and Chris Osmond went through every parents' worst nightmare when Olivia was rushed into surgery at two days old with a rare condition affecting her wind pipe, while baby Georgia was diagnosed with viral meningitis four months later.

First-time mum Miss Burgess, from Pontnewynydd, said she was delighted when she gave birth to beautiful baby girls, with Olivia weighing in at 4lb 4oz, and Georgia at 5lb 1oz.

But when she tried to give Olivia her first feed, the new born started to choke and the next day doctors informed Miss Burgess, 21, and Mr Osmond, 23, that Olivia had tracheo-oesophageal fistula syndrome, or TOF.

The rare condition, which affects one in 3,500 babies, means a baby's food pipe is not connected to its stomach and can also cause problems with the bowl, hearing, heart and limbs.

At just two days old, Olivia was rushed into the operating theatre at Cardiff’s University of Wales Hospital to reconnect her oesophagus to her stomach, and remained in intensive care for two weeks.

Her weight plummeted to three and a half pounds, and things went from bad to worse as she developed a heart murmur.

In desperate need of a second operation, Olivia had to wait three weeks before she was strong enough to have the faulty valves fixed in her heart at St Michael's Hospital in Bristol.

During an extremely emotional time, Miss Burgess said she and Mr Osmond often expected the worse.

"Every time my phone went I would panic. You think of babies as being so vulnerable, and thinking about what Olivia had to go through at time, I thought this is going to be it. She’ll never recover from that.”

But when Olivia returned home in July, and just as she was beginning to show signs of recovering, sister Georgia was taken seriously ill.

At four months old, she was diagnosed with viral meningitis and rushed to Nevill Hall Hospital.

She remained there for three days on anti-biotics, before coming home to join finally join her parents and sister in being a family again.

Although Olivia is still on medication and will need regular check ups to keep an eye on her heart, Miss Burgess said both girls are now doing well, and they hope they have left the worst behind.

"They’re both starting to laugh and be more aware of each other. It’s just so nice for the four of us to be a family again because it was only three of us for a while.”