Two of the quintuplets born in a Krakow hospital last Saturday will probably undergo heart surgery.
This surgery is probably a PDA ligation surgery. When your baby is in utero it was not necessary for blood to circulate through the lungs because oxygen was provided through the placenta.
At birth, the placenta is removed when the umbilical cord is cut. A baby’s lungs must now provide oxygen to their body. When they take their first breath, the blood vessels in the lungs open up, and blood begins to flow through to pick up oxygen.
Because a severely premature baby never really takes a good breath, sometimes this conversion doesn’t happen.
It is fairly common for preemies to need this surgery. Doctors normally try to treat it with medication first. If that is not successful, then the surgery is done.
Professor Ryszard Lauterbach, head of the neonatal ward of the Krakow hospital, told Radio Krakow that the girls are in a stable condition, but they will require intensive medical assistance within the next couple of months.
The girls will have to remain in incubators until they reach normal weight. At birth each of them only weighed 800 grams.
The quints doctors think they might be identical. They will know for sure in a few weeks. The babies were conceived naturally.
Related Articles:
- Update: Polish Quintuplets ‘Stable’
- Byler Sextuplets Update
- A Couple in Poland Welcomes Quintuplets
- Couple Adopts Rare Identical Triplets
PHOTOS: The top baby is one of the quints named Olivia and the second is one of her sisters
