Four babies – two girls and two boys – were born to Fernando and Vanessa Preciado Duarte at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Bellflower on August 14, 2008. Listed in birth order, Fernando, Jr., Marianna, Jesus and Yadira, began arriving at 7:48 p.m. The babies weighed between 3-pounds 2-ounces and 3-pounds and 11-ounces.
Mrs. Duarte was admitted to Kaiser Permanente-Bellflower last week and has been under the coordinated care of her obstetricians and neonatologists since then.
The babies are considered premature (born at 32 weeks via Caesarian section), but Kaiser Permanente obstetrician Mitch Rabbi, MD, who has been Mrs. Duarte’s physician throughout her pregnancy, said the mother and babies are doing well, considering their early arrival.
The overall logistics of the birth were complex, but the hospital had a detailed plan in place to respond quickly.
“This was a cooperative effort by the entire medical center,” said Binesh Batra, MD, medical director of Kaiser Permanente Bellflower. “Even though the births were premature, we had prepared in advance. We had delivery teams of nearly 25 people on standby. The teams included physicians, nurses and staff from OB, Anesthesiology and Neonatology, and they responded very well to the challenge of delivering quadruplets.”
“We have excellent OB services and an outstanding neonatal intensive care unit in Kaiser Permanente-Bellflower – this episode demonstrated the kind of high-quality care we give to all our members,” added Dr. Batra.
In 2003, a set of quintuplets were delivered at Kaiser Permanente – Bellflower. The medical center recently celebrated their fifth birthday at the hospital.
The occurrence of quadruplet births in the United States is rare, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, which recorded only 418 such births from 1995 to 2005.
Kaiser Permanente is America’s leading health care organization. Founded in 1945, it is a non-profit, group-practice prepayment health care program with headquarters in Oakland, California. The Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center serves 286,756 members throughout Southeast Los Angeles County, and has members in the cities of Bell, Bellflower, Bell Gardens, Commerce, Compton, Cudahy, Downey, Huntington Park, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Norwalk, Santa Fe Springs, South Gate, Vernon and Whittier.
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