Boaz Dov Wong was one of the identical twin sons of actor B.D. Wong and his then partner, Richie Jackson. He was born prematurely on May 28, 2000, alongside his brother, Jackson Foo Wong. Boaz died approximately 90 minutes after birth, while Jackson survived after months of intensive medical care.
The twins’ pregnancy was affected by twin to twin transfusion syndrome, a serious condition involving uneven blood flow through a shared placenta. Their early arrival brought the family both the loss of one child and uncertainty about the other’s survival.
B.D. Wong later documented this experience in his 2003 book, Following Foo: The Electronic Adventures of the Chestnut Man. His writing and interviews provide the clearest account of Boaz’s brief life, the family’s path to parenthood, and the memories Wong continued to share.
Who Was Boaz Dov Wong?
Boaz Dov Wong was the son of B.D. Wong, the actor known for his work on Broadway and television, and Richie Jackson. His story became publicly known through Wong’s account of becoming a father. It centers on a planned family, a premature twin birth, and the different outcomes for the two babies.
Playbill’s contemporary coverage records May 28, 2000, as the twins’ birth date. Wong’s interview with Terry Gross places their birth in Modesto, California. These details help distinguish the place where they were born from New York, which appears elsewhere in accounts of the family.
Boaz did not survive beyond infancy. His biography therefore concerns the circumstances of his birth and his place in the family’s history. The most useful information comes from the people who experienced those events, especially his father’s interviews and book.
His Parents’ Plan for a Family
Before the twins were born, Wong and Jackson had decided that they wanted to become parents together. In interviews, Wong explained that they hoped to have a child with a genetic connection to both sides of their family. Their approach involved an egg donor and a separate surrogate.
Wong provided the sperm, while Jackson’s sister, Sue, donated the eggs. A surrogate carried the pregnancy. This distinction matters because donating an egg and carrying a pregnancy are different roles. Sue’s contribution connected the children genetically to Jackson’s family, while Wong was their biological father.
The arrangement was part of the couple’s preparation for parenthood. Their family story did not begin with the hospital emergency, even though that emergency later became central to Wong’s writing. His account also described the decisions and practical steps that came before the birth. The Advocate’s 2003 interview documented these details while discussing his new book.
The Twins’ Premature Birth
The surrogate went into labor at 28 weeks of pregnancy. This was much earlier than expected, leaving both babies facing the risks associated with a very early birth. In his later account, Wong described the delivery as taking place during a medical crisis.
Wong told Fresh Air that the family had not known the twins were affected by twin to twin transfusion syndrome before the emergency. The condition and the premature delivery were closely connected in his explanation of what happened. Both babies were in distress around the time of their birth.
The location is also important to the sequence of events. The twins were born in Modesto, and Jackson was later transferred elsewhere for specialized care. That transfer was part of his treatment after delivery, rather than evidence that the twins were born in San Francisco.
The Condition Affecting Both Babies
Twin to twin transfusion syndrome is often shortened to TTTS. It can occur when twins share a placenta and have connected blood vessels within it. An imbalance develops in the blood flow between the babies, with one receiving too little and the other receiving too much.
The twin receiving too little blood is called the donor, while the other is called the recipient. Both can face serious complications. Johns Hopkins Medicine explains that the condition involves the shared placenta and its network of blood vessels, which supply oxygen and nutrients during pregnancy.
Wong described one baby becoming severely anemic while the other became overloaded with blood. The Advocate identified Boaz as the donor twin. These accounts explain the medical context, but they do not provide a complete clinical record. Boaz’s death should therefore be described within the documented circumstances of TTTS and premature birth, without inventing a more specific medical finding.
Boaz Dov Wong’s Death
Boaz died approximately 90 minutes after birth. A 2003 interview with Wong in Windy City Times reported that brief lifespan while discussing the events behind Following Foo. His death occurred at the beginning of an extended period of uncertainty for the family.
At the same time, Jackson’s condition remained serious. The parents were dealing with the death of one son while doctors continued treating the other. These were overlapping experiences, rather than a loss followed by an immediate return to ordinary family life.
Wong later spoke about Boaz as a continuing part of his experience of fatherhood. His interviews did not reduce the story to Jackson’s survival alone. They also acknowledged the child who had died and the questions his absence left behind.
Jackson’s Hospital Care and Survival
Jackson required intensive care after the birth. Wong told Fresh Air that he was transferred from Modesto to the University of California, San Francisco, where he received treatment in an intensive care nursery. The move placed him in a hospital equipped to manage his serious condition.
His care continued for approximately three months. Wong described his surviving son’s life as being in danger through much of that period. Jackson’s survival was therefore not something the family could assume immediately after delivery.
During the hospitalization, Wong began sending updates to people close to the family. Those messages recorded developments as they happened, before he knew how the whole experience would end. They later became an important written record of those months.
Jackson eventually survived the crisis and grew into adulthood. That outcome is central to the family’s story, but it does not change the fact that his parents had also lost Boaz. Wong’s later writing brought both experiences into the same account of becoming a father.
The Story Behind Following Foo
Wong published Following Foo: The Electronic Adventures of the Chestnut Man in 2003. The correct word in the subtitle is “Electronic.” The book grew from the emails he wrote during Jackson’s hospitalization, rather than beginning as a conventional biography written long after the events.
Initially, the messages kept friends and relatives informed. Recipients forwarded them, and the audience expanded. In his Windy City Times interview, Wong said the emails eventually reached almost a thousand people. Their wider circulation helped lead to the idea of turning them into a book.
The resulting work covered medical uncertainty, parenting, loss, and support from others. Its form included personal updates and creative passages, reflecting the way Wong communicated during the hospital stay. The writing preserved changing circumstances instead of presenting the outcome as something the family had always known.
“Foo” refers to Jackson, but Boaz remains essential to the book’s subject. The account begins with the twins and the crisis surrounding their arrival. Readers looking for the family’s story can therefore find both Boaz’s death and Jackson’s survival within Wong’s record of those events.
How B.D. Wong Remembered Boaz
In interviews about the book, Wong described continuing to think about Boaz. He spoke about moments when he wondered what might have happened if both boys had survived. His comments acknowledged that Jackson’s presence did not remove his thoughts about the twin who died.
Wong also described Boaz in heroic terms. He expressed a personal belief that Boaz’s brief life was connected to Jackson’s chance to survive. This was his way of understanding a painful loss and holding both sons within the family’s story.
That interpretation should remain clearly attributed to him. It is not a medical conclusion that Boaz deliberately saved his brother or chose to die. The documented medical account concerns a dangerous pregnancy complication and premature birth. Wong’s reflections describe the meaning he found in those events as a parent.
His willingness to discuss Boaz gave readers an account of grief alongside the practical details of hospital care. The interviews and book allow his memories to be understood in his own terms, without adding imagined feelings, private scenes, or explanations he did not provide.
Final Thoughts
Boaz Dov Wong was born prematurely alongside his identical twin, Jackson Foo Wong, in May 2000. He died shortly after birth, while Jackson survived following months of intensive care.
B.D. Wong’s writing preserved an account of both sons and the family’s experience. Following Foo remains an important source for understanding their birth, the medical crisis, and the place Boaz continued to hold in his father’s memories.
(FAQs)
Were Boaz and Jackson identical twins?
Yes. Wong described them as identical twin boys in his Fresh Air interview. They shared a placenta and were affected by TTTS.
Was Richie Jackson’s sister the surrogate?
No. Sue donated the eggs, while a separate surrogate carried the pregnancy. Wong provided the sperm.
Was Boaz born in New York?
Wong’s interview account places the twins’ birth in Modesto, California. Jackson was later transferred to San Francisco for treatment.
Is Following Foo only about Jackson?
Although its title refers to Jackson, the book also covers Boaz’s death and the circumstances surrounding both boys’ birth. Their stories are connected throughout the account of the family’s early experience.
Does Wong’s account prove Boaz saved his brother?
No. Wong described that connection as part of his personal understanding of the loss. It should not be presented as a medical finding or a deliberate act by Boaz.
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