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Becky Bruce and Keith McCord reportingYou've probably heard the cliché, "There must be something in the water", in reference to someone having twins or triplets. Well, we wonder what's in the water at St. Mark's Hospital because OB/GYN's there have been very busy!
It's been a hectic few days in the Women's Pavilion at St. Marks Hospital. Since Monday, there have been, not one set of twins born, not two, or three or four, would you believe ten sets of twins? That's a lot of little toes and fingers!
Dr. Gary Dildy says, "This far exceeds our usual rate of twin births by several fold."
Kathleen Murphy, Director of Marketing and Communications for St. Mark's Hospital said, "You just don't know if it's the weather or the barometric pressure, or what it is; but we're just happy to have them, and that they're safe and healthy."
We met the beaming parents of some of the twins. No one had any theories about why they all delivered so close together. Several of the couples said there's a history of multiple births in their families, and, of course, there were stories of disbelief when they first discovered that more than one was on the way.
Jasmine Beamer said, "Well, he wasn't with me and thought I was just faking. So I saw two sacks, and I said, ‘What does that mean?' ‘Two babies.' And I said, Oh no!'"
Of the 10 sets, three had a tougher time. Dildy and his team had to perform second-trimester surgeries to correct circulatory problems. He said, "Our group performs in-utero fetal surgery to try to correct the vascular abnormalities during pregnancy that lead to this severe complication of twin to twin transfusion."
Of the 10 sets of twins, the largest baby weighed in at 6 pounds 3 ounces; the smallest, a pound and a half.
So, Iris, Robert Jr., Adaline, Eric, Kayson, Luke, Tanner, Sophie, Chloe and all the rest, welcome to the world. You're all part of a very special group.
"We're hoping that they'll slow down to a reasonable level, but not too slow," Gildy said.
Five sets of twins are still in the Newborn ICU, because several were born prematurely and need extra care right now.
E-mail: kmccord@ksl.com
E-mail: bbruce@ksl.com
