JERUSALEM: PALESTINIAN WOMAN GIVES BIRTH TO SEVEN BABIES

Record ID: 860861

  • Title: JERUSALEM: PALESTINIAN WOMAN GIVES BIRTH TO SEVEN BABIES
  • Date: 7th June 2004
  • Summary: (W7)JERUSALEM (JUNE 7, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) VARIOUS OF BABIES IN INCUBATORS CLOSE OF DOCTORS/ NURSES TREATING BABIES CLOSE OF MONITOR SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) TORMAHA ABDUL HADI, PAEDIATRICIAN, SAYING: "Well, they are premature, 25 weeks and they are all in critical condition. They were seven and one has already died and the others are seriously critical condition. We hope that they will do fine but we are worried about them." VARIOUS OF BABIES SLV HALA EID, MOTHER OF SEPTUPLETS LYING IN HOSPITAL BED SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HALA SAYING: "I feel fine and I hope that my children feel fine as well." VARIOUS OF DOCTOR TREATING BABY CLOSE OF BABY VARIOUS OF INCUBATORS SLV NURSES IN HOSPITAL CORRIDOR WIDE OF EXTERIOR OF MAKASSED HOSPITAL
  • Embargoed: 22nd June 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA5H2TCJ1SFOS9BKU7LJ4OU7SCI
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Palestinian woman gives birth to seven, one dies. A Palestinian woman has given birth to a rare set of septuplets in the holy city of Jerusalem on Monday (June 7), but one baby girl died shortly after birth, doctors said.
    Hala Eid, 26 of Bethlehem, gave birth overnight by Caesarean delivery to four boys and three girls, the smallest of which weighed just 540 grams.
    "They were seven and one has already died and the others are seriously critical condition," said Tormaha Abdul Hadi, a paediatrician who has been caring for the babies in Makassed hospital in East Jerusalem.
    Septuplet births are extremely rare. The first set known to have survived for more than a few days was born in the U.S. state of Iowa in 1997. Those babies have intermittent health problems but are said to be doing well.
    A handful of other births have been reported in the Middle East, and late in 1998 Nigerian-born Nkem Chukwu gave birth in Texas to eight children, one of whom later died of heart and lung failure.
    Eid became pregnant after taking fertility enhancing drugs and declined surgery to reduce the number of babies.
    She was admitted to hospital just over a week ago at around 23 weeks. Doctors said the hospital had to transfer other infants to nearby hospitals to make room for her surviving six septuplets in Makassad's neonatal care ward.
    "I feel fine and I hope that my children feel fine as well," Eid told Reuters.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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