When Brittani and Ian McIntire went for their first scan, they were in for a shock... the sonographer picked up 2 heartbeats on the monitor – they were expecting twins – a boy and a girl.

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But just as they were getting their heads around that bombshell, at the 16-week scan they were given devastating news.

With a hole in his heart and an abnormal brain – the baby boy wasn't growing like he should.

"He's only weighing 9 ounces and his sister is over 2 pounds, so big size difference," Brittani told Eyewitness News 12. "His only chance of survival would be heart surgery but they wouldn't do heart surgery on him because of his brain."

At every follow-up appointment the couple went to, it was more bad news.

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Until this week, when the couple spotted something very unusual on the ultrasound.

A special bond

"She said there's his hand and there's her hand and it looks like they're holding hands," Brittani explained.

The black and white image shows baby Mason with his tiny hand wrapped around the finger of his twin sister Madilyn.

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"Most twins, when she's trying to take pictures and stuff, they're kicking each other and hitting each other and she said with our twins it seems like she was very protective over him," Brittani said.

The special image of the 2 siblings bonding broke Brittani's heart because Mason may never get to know the rest of his family.

The couple, both 30, already have two daughters Kinsley, 4, and Brailey, 6.

"We know we have a piece of them together that will last forever and it's special to have," dad-to-be Ian said.

And Brittani is taking comfort in the fact that Madilyn is there for Mason.

"I know I'm holding him, I'm carrying him but I just want to be there for him," she said. "And she's the only one who can actually be there and holding onto him through it, so it's comforting to know that if he does pass he won't be alone."

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