Russian woman has quins in UK
Updated on 15 November 2007
A Russian woman and her five daughters are doing well after giving birth to quintuplets at a hospital in Oxford.
Clearly happy, but clearly in shock, too as they gaze at their instant family of five girls. All have names, but their parents are not ready yet for any more public attention than this. Born at a little over 25 weeks - an infant's tiny fist, in her father's grasp an indication of their delicate size: the smallest less than 2 pounds or a kilo in weight. And bringing them this far involved huge medical intervention before and after the birth:
"The babies needed to be kept warm, ventilated and treated with chemicals all within first few minutes after birth." - Prof Andrew Wilkinson
The Russian quins are only the second set to be born at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital.
And only the sixth set of quintuplets to be born in Britain in the past 40 years:
In 1969 the Hanson family had five girls. In 1980 the Ward family from Manchester had 4 boys and a girl. Seven years later Lesley Needham in Kent had 3 girls and 2 boys and only 5 years ago the Loughran family from county Tyrone had 3 boys and 2 girls.
Significantly the Loughran quins were naturally conceived - only they 12th set of natural quintuplets in the world, since records began.
The six figure medical bill for these babies is being paid by Russian benefactors, not the NHS, but there remains controversy about the fertility drug their 29 year old mother had taken in Russia; a drug which it's reported, is illegal in Britain.
"It was not a natural conception. It was not IVF either. It was stimulation of the ovaries with fertility drugs, which possibly happened to a less supervised degree than would happen in this country." - Lawrence Impey, Consultant, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford
For the consultants this delivery was "exciting"; and the babies have already defied the 80 percent survival odds.
But beyond survival, the cost to the children and their family is more complex: steroids to forcibly develop the lungs; separated in intensive care units 50 miles apart.; and the significant possibility of handicap - which may not be known for some time. But these parents have nothing but gratitude for the British doctors and nurses, who helped them keep all their girls.
