Hope springs eternal
PHOENIX — A Texas couple gave birth to a record-breaking set of quintuplets at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix on Tuesday.
Rachelle Wilkinson, 31, of Cedar Park, Texas, delivered three girls and two boys.
“They came out and they were just beautiful,” said Jayson Wilkinson, the new father.
The babies had a total weight of 21 pounds, 7.2 ounces, which is the new U.S. record for quintuplets, according to Dr. John Elliott, Wilkinson’s perinatologist. The previous record of 21 pounds, 1.2 ounces was set in 2003 by a Pennsylvania woman who also gave birth at Banner Good Samaritan.
Doctors said the mother did suffer some complications with her kidneys, but is doing fine.
The babies meanwhile, are all breathing on their own and even eating. Here are their statistics:
BABY A, girl; 5 lbs, 1.2 oz; 8:17 a.m.
BABY B, girl; 3 lbs, 6 oz; 8:18 a.m.
BABY C, boy; 4 lbs, 15 oz; 8:18 a.m.
BABY D, girl; 4 lbs, 2 oz; 8:19 a.m.
BABY E, boy; 3 lbs, 15 oz; 8:19 a.m.
Wilkinson and her husband, Jayson, named the girls Kaydence, Kassidy and Kyndall; the boys’ names are Rustin and Ryder.
After the birth, four of the infants were being cared for by the Phoenix Children’s Hospital’s neonatology specialists, while Kassidy was allowed to go to the Well-Baby nursery at Banner Good Samaritan.
Wilkinson is the sixth woman to give birth to quintuplets at Banner Good Samaritan, which has also seen the deliveries of about 74 sets of quadruplets and two sets of sextuplets — including the Masche babies born last month. The hospital said most of the women who gave birth to quadruplets and quintuplets there came to Phoenix from another part of the country.