AUGUSTA (AP) — A new hospital in Augusta has opened with a bang — or rather the cries of newborn twins.

MaineGeneral Medical Center’s Alfond Center for Health opened ahead of schedule Saturday and welcomed twins just hours later.

Hannah Veilleux was born five weeks premature, followed about a minute later by her brother Samuel. They required the care available in the new hospital’s Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, a unit not available either at the old Maine- General Medical Center in Augusta or Thayer Center for Health in Waterville.

Parents Nikkia and Tim Veilleux tell the Kennebec Journal the newborns are doing well.

The $312 million facility opened with the help of $35 million in grants and gifts from the Harold Alfond Foundation, and replaces the old hospital.

Comments are not available on this story.