Mother of Sextuplets suffers heart failure

[Geekbabe]

talk about whelping a litter :Q

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: Accipiter22
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH...plet.mom.ap/index.html link to story


http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/HE...ory.masche.baby.ap.jpg link to baby picture.....I mean geeze....oh man do all premees look like this?????

pretty much. there were also 5 more kids in there...so they would naturally be smaller/creepier.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: rivan

Originally posted by: MrWizzard
Uh the baby was 10 weeks early wasn't quite done. So yea thats pretty normal. After a few days it will look a little better.

I was roughly as premature as those kids - though I was a single birth. My earliest pics are not cute. By my original due date (I was about 2.5 months premature, so at roughly that age) I looked much more like a normal baby, and was eating like two normal babies

i was the opposite - 9.5lbs at birth

 

[Inspector Jihad]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad
i worked with a neonatalogist and i shadowed him once. this was at childrens hospital of philly which is a major hospital and they get extreme cases from all over the country...some of the babies i saw,i did not believe that they could survive...they were so tiny. i watched a resident intubate one of the babies and i was sh*t scared for him cause the baby was so tiny.

Yeah, and then the moms get all pissed and sue the doctors if they don't make it.

it is a neonatal ward and chances for survival are considerably lower than normal births.

 

[silverpig]

Back in you go Aquaman, not quite done yet...

 

[preCRT]

She was incredibly selfish, putting her babies at risk.

After two miscarriages during their three-year marriage, Jenny and Bryan were desperate to have children. Twice, the couple felt the pain of seeing an ultrasound that showed no heartbeat.

Late last year, they traveled from Lake Havasu City to a fertility clinic outside Las Vegas where Drs. Rachel A. McConnell and Eva Littman recommended in vitro fertilization.

The Masches, who are Christians, were uncomfortable with a procedure that could result in the discarding of an embryo.

Instead, Jenny was put on a drug that stimulates the production of eggs for fertilization. The day after Thanksgiving, she was artificially inseminated with Bryan's sperm. Then, Bryan believes, God took over.

Just before Christmas last year, they were overjoyed to learn Jenny was pregnant. Still, signs pointed to something abnormal. Jenny suffered from ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome and twice traveled to Las Vegas to have fluid drained from her abdomen.

The Masches suspected they were having more than one baby. On Dec. 29, they went for their first ultrasound, still gripped by a fear they again would see no heartbeat. They prayed together.

Bryan told Jenny, "If it's four or five or just one or none, it will be OK."

As [Dr.] Littman stared at the black-and-white ultrasound images, her jaw dropped.

"There are definitely multiples," she said and counted on the screen. "One, two, three, four."

Jenny began to cry.

Five.

Jenny and Bryan prayed the doctor would stop counting, but Littman found one more tiny fetus, one more fluttering heartbeat.

Bryan struggled to maintain his composure.

Littman said they could reduce the number of embryos to give the remaining fetuses a better shot at survival and good health.

"I can't do that," Jenny told her. "I can't choose."

Both she and Bryan believed that selective reduction constituted the killing of a baby.

Jenny set her mind on motherhood times six...


...Most twins and triplets do well. With quads and quints, risks increase. Sextuplets remain something of a mystery and a great risk.

Jenny's cervix could collapse from the weight of the babies, resulting in an unplanned delivery. Her babies were certain to be premature, which can cause inadequate lung development, cerebral palsy or hydrocephaly, fluid that forms around the brain....

http://www.azcentral.com/arizo...12sextuplets06121.html

If you are going to depend on science & medicine to help you conceive, then you should follow through and do what's best to have healthy babies, that means not delivering a litter.

 

[everman]

After getting six kids in one day, Bryan Masche said, he and his wife are happy with the size of their family.

"This is it," he said. "I don't want any more kids."

 

[Nik]

You guys are horribly cruel.

:brokenheart:

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: preCRT


The Masches, who are Christians, were uncomfortable with a procedure that could result in the discarding of an embryo.

Instead, Jenny was put on a drug that stimulates the production of eggs for fertilization. The day after Thanksgiving, she was artificially inseminated with Bryan's sperm. Then, Bryan believes, God took over.

What a bunch of idiots.

If God did anything there, he told them "You shouldn't have kids". Twice.

Then they overrode God's word and let science take over with the fertility drugs. Then God spoke a third time and gave the cretin a heart attack.

 

[Accipiter22]

update: there were 4 boys and 2 girls, 3 of the boys have died.


ugh. Hopefully this spurns some type of banning or regulation of fertility drugs

 

[Pacfanweb]

I think you have your sextuplets mixed up. There were two sets born within 10 hours....one set in Minnesota, and one set in Arizona.

The Arizona mom is the one who had heart failure, and all her kids are still living.

The Minnesota sextuplets have lost 3 so far...they were premature.

 

[TruePaige]

Originally posted by: FlashG
My oldest son looked like that because he was a 6 week primi. When kids are that early they don't have an accumulation of baby fat which is why they look like scalded monkeys. It's been a long time but I know that he had to stay in a hospital incubator for a month until he was 5 pounds. He's 39 now so it all turned out OK for us.

It's late. I wonder if he's 39lbs or 39 yrs.

 

[preCRT]

Originally posted by: Pacfanweb
I think you have your sextuplets mixed up. There were two sets born within 10 hours....one set in Minnesota, and one set in Arizona.

The Arizona mom is the one who had heart failure, and all her kids are still living.

The Minnesota sextuplets have lost 3 so far...they were premature.

Both couples used fertility drugs & science, both couples refused doctor advice on reductions, both women delivered early.

MINNEAPOLIS: Third of sextuplets born about 4 1/2 months early dies

THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Published: June 17th, 2007 01:00 AM


Half of the sextuplets born prematurely to a Minnesota couple have now died, while the others remained in critical condition, hospital officials said Saturday.

A third boy, Lincoln Sean Morrison, died Friday. Two of his brothers, Tryg and Bennet, died last week.

The four boys and two girls, conceived with the help of fertility treatments, were born June 10 about 41/2 months early a Minneapolis hospital. Doctors had advised the couple to selectively reduce the number of viable fetuses to two, but they declined.

?We continue to trust in the Lord and are hopeful for a good outcome for Cadence, Lucia and Sylas,? said a statement by parents Ryan and Brianna Morrison.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/...world/story/89300.html

 

[preCRT]

Originally posted by: Accipiter22
update: there were 4 boys and 2 girls, 3 of the boys have died.


ugh. Hopefully this spurns some type of banning or regulation of fertility drugs

They don't need to ban fertility drugs but they should require someone to agree in advance to reduction in the case of multiple [more than 3] embryos or refuse their access to the drugs.







Nicely stated article, and includes the scary fact that there are other religious wackos carrying litters:

Denogean: Babies should come in ones, not in sixes
ANNE T. DENOGEAN

Published: 06.15.2007

Can I be blunt? The female human was not meant to give birth to litters.

Less than a day apart, women from Arizona and Minnesota gave birth to a total of 12 babies. That's right, two sets of sextuplets, one born Sunday in Minnesota to Ryan and Brianna Morrison and the other Monday in Phoenix to Bryan and Jenny Masche.

With little exception, the coverage of the pregnancies was neutral or positive, with humorous asides about 50-inch bellies, late-night feedings and mountains of dirty diapers.

One article, noting that 12 American couples have given birth to sextuplets who survived infancy, called the Masches of Lake Havasu "the lucky 13th." Couples in California and Florida also are expecting sextuplets this year.

Because I am a media veteran who wrote about health care for five years, the refusal to cover this story for what it is drives me more than a little crazy.

Birthing six babies at once is not a medical miracle. It's a medical disaster!

One of the Morrison sextuplets died Wednesday. His siblings' chances of survival are low. The future health of all of these babies is a big question mark.

"We'll be lucky, really lucky," said local fertility specialist Dr. Scot Hutchison, "if several of these children don't have to have long-term special care.

"The risk of cerebral palsy and learning disability is four times more likely for twins than for single babies. For triplets, it's eight times more likely. And so it's really an exponential thing when you get out to six babies."

And that's after the millions of dollars in intensive care unit charges the dozen premature babies are likely to run up, said Hutchison, sole practitioner at Reproductive Health Center and director of the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of Arizona.

Pregnancies such as these are dangerous for everyone, including the mom.

Jenny Masche could have died Monday. Several hours after the Caesarean delivery, she suffered acute heart failure because of the extra blood in her body.

But at least she managed to carry her babies for 30 weeks. The Morrison children were born at only 22 weeks.

The Masche family has health insurance to cover most of the cost, but expenses like this drive up premiums for everyone.

Also, Bryan Masche publicly said he hopes Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center will write off the remaining thousands the family owes because he can't pay it and "this is the first time (sextuplets) have ever happened in Arizona."

The Masches have set up a Web site on which they are soliciting donations ranging from diapers to a vehicle large enough for two adults and six babies with car seats. A church sponsored a diaper drive and collected 22,000 diapers for them.
It probably won't be enough.

"This couple will exhaust all of their resources, and after a few months, when no one thinks it's interesting or cute anymore, they'll be left trying to struggle through," Hutchison said.
The number of American babies born in higher order births - triplets or more - more than quadrupled from 1971 to 1995, mostly because of fertility treatments, according to a National Center for Health Statistics report.

Fertility treatment is not an exact science. But there are things responsible practitioners can do to reduce the chance of a multiples, from limiting the number of embryos implanted in an in vitro procedure to the choice of fertility drug regimen to halting a cycle.

Hutchison didn't know the specifics of Masche's fertility treatment, other than media reports that she was on fertility drugs and was impregnated through artificial insemination.
"What happened could have have just been bad luck," he said.

On the other hand, he said: "If she had one of these ovulation defects, didn't have endometriosis and was going to ovulate a whole hunking load of eggs, and they knew it, they should have snatched the cycle.

"The problem when you do that is that patients are incredibly unhappy because they've already spent hundreds of dollars on medication . . . (and) nothing has happened for these people for years."

Hutchison said he considers twins an acceptable complication and triplets a failure. Years ago, his practice produced one set of quadruplets, which made him re-examine how aggressive he wanted to be with treatment.

Women pregnant with multiples are counseled to consider selective reduction - aborting one or more of the fetuses.

Both the Masches and the Morrisons are quoted in news stories as saying they decided to leave that decision in the hands of God. (Of course, had they done that in the first place, they probably never would have become pregnant).

Hutchison's long-standing advice to women seeking fertility treatment is to ask not only about a clinic's success at pregnancies, but also about what it can do to reduce their chance of having multiples.

"The goal has to be healthy baby, healthy mother, and it should be one baby at a time," he said.

One can't help but wish the best for their Masches and the Morrisons. They need all the good wishes they can get.

But we have to see these stories not though vision clouded by powder-pink and baby-blue lenses, but for the potential tragedies they are.

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/54706.php

 

[BrokenVisage]

Originally posted by: lizardboy

Originally posted by: CKent

Originally posted by: Darthvoy
We all looked like that hideous alien creature at one point in our lives too.

I don't think it's their intent, rather a devil (a lawyer) talks them into it.

What on earth are you talking about?

Some say it's the psychological fabric of our society that holds us together.

 

[Zedtom]

The moral dilemma is that couples that choose to use fertility drugs to conceive reason that this is helping to fulfill their religious decree to be fruitful and multiply. However, when complications arise, the reasoning to not terminate some of the premies that are not going to survive is considered interfering with God's will.

How can these couples play it both ways? They want doctors to use modern technology to help them conceive, then reject their advice when they suggest a procedure that goes against their beliefs.

 

[compuwiz1]

God bless that mother.

 

[kmmatney]

Originally posted by: Zedtom
The moral dilemma is that couples that choose to use fertility drugs to conceive reason that this is helping to fulfill their religious decree to be fruitful and multiply. However, when complications arise, the reasoning to not terminate some of the premies that are not going to survive is considered interfering with God's will.

How can these couples play it both ways? They want doctors to use modern technology to help them conceive, then reject their advice when they suggest a procedure that goes against their beliefs.

I agree. I'm a Lutheran and attend church regulary, but this sickens me that they refused to reduce the number of babies do to "religious" reasons - although they had no trouble using the fertility drugs in the first place. In this case, even the one's that survive will probably have problems for years to come. They really should regulate this to allow no more than 3 embryos.

 

[mrkun]

Originally posted by: jhayx7

Originally posted by: Accipiter22
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH...plet.mom.ap/index.html link to story


http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/HE...ory.masche.baby.ap.jpg link to baby picture.....I mean geeze....oh man do all premees look like this?????

*cold shivers*

FSCK!

X-Files baby....

If you think that's an X-Files baby, I suggest looking up pictures of babies with "harlequin ichthyosis".

 

[Alone]

Originally posted by: mrkun
If you think that's an X-Files baby, I suggest looking up pictures of babies with "harlequin ichthyosis".

Don't.

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: Zedtom
The moral dilemma is that couples that choose to use fertility drugs to conceive reason that this is helping to fulfill their religious decree to be fruitful and multiply. However, when complications arise, the reasoning to not terminate some of the premies that are not going to survive is considered interfering with God's will.

How can these couples play it both ways? They want doctors to use modern technology to help them conceive, then reject their advice when they suggest a procedure that goes against their beliefs.

Agreed x3

 

[wahoyaho]

man that sucks :s 6 kids in one go there goes familiy planning

but ya x-file babies look at hills have eyes 2 the intro

 

[TheGizmo]

Originally posted by: Zedtom
The moral dilemma is that couples that choose to use fertility drugs to conceive reason that this is helping to fulfill their religious decree to be fruitful and multiply. However, when complications arise, the reasoning to not terminate some of the premies that are not going to survive is considered interfering with God's will.

How can these couples play it both ways? They want doctors to use modern technology to help them conceive, then reject their advice when they suggest a procedure that goes against their beliefs.

yea i feel the same way about that. P.S. anyone else think it could be ET's baby?

 

[0roo0roo]

yea that gods will stuff is annoying, they cheated gods will that they not concieve, its time to give up the game at that point.

plus if they really thought about gods will, they would remember the death rate before modern medical science for mothers in child birth was rather horrific.

 

[eits]

poor babies... poor parents... i hope they deal with their loss well... that's sad