Man has miracle twins - 22 years after he had a vasectomy

London, June 21 : A 50-year-old man, who had a vasectomy 22 years ago, has become a proud father of twins after a miraculous treatment at a British fertility clinic.

Steven Richardson lost his hopes to have kids with second wife Carol after a reverse snip op failed.

But the couple became parents to twins Annie and William, thanks to Indian-origin medic Dr Rashmi Patel, at the Manchester CARE fertility clinic, who tried an op called ICSI, or Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection.

Steven already had three children - Lee, now 33, Lisa, 27, and Nicola, 23 from his first marriage before he went for the snip. And it was in 1994 that he met Carol, 37, whom he married in 1998.

But when the reverse operation failed, he got the miracle treatment from Manchester CARE fertility, where the doctors extracted sperm from his testicles, and used it to fertilise one of Carol's eggs IVF-style, followed by embryo implantation.

However, it was his age and scarring after the snip that made the chances for success quite bleak. But it was in November 2006 that the treatment finally clicked for this couple after two failed tries.

"It seems like a miracle that 22 years after Steve's vasectomy we've been able to have our twins. I had always wanted to be a mother, and against all the odds, we have our beautiful twins and I'm a mum at last," The Sun quoted Carol, as saying.

Steven added: "When my reversal failed we were devastated. But the other procedure did work and now we are over the moon."

Dr Patel said: "We were very happy to help Carol and Steven."

ANI