5 Babies Are Stronger but ‘Peanut’ Is Still Struggling

Five of the six surviving Frustaci septuplets grew healthier during their third day of life Thursday, one showing “tremendous” improvement, while the smallest remained severely ill, their chief doctor said.

The four boys and two girls, born Tuesday morning to a Riverside schoolteacher who took fertility drugs, nonetheless remained in critical condition. The smallest and youngest, a boy nicknamed “The Peanut,” is still the most severely ill, and a girl, known only as Baby D, also is more ill than the other four, said Dr. Carrie Worcester, director of the neonatal intensive care unit at Childrens Hospital of Orange County in Orange.

“Are these really my babies?” Patti Frustaci said Thursday as she watched her infants on the television news, according to Tes Pane, head of obstetrical and gynecological nursing at St. Joseph Hospital, where the mother is in intensive care. Frustaci was “astounded” to see them, Pane said at a news conference. Pane said six Polaroid snapshots of the babies are beside her bed.

Patti Frustaci will not be well enough to visit the babies until late today or Saturday, her doctor said.

The firstborn, a girl jokingly called “Bigfoot” by her father during a videotaped visit Thursday, “has shown tremendous improvement in the past 24 hours,” Worcester said at a news conference.

She said medication appears to have corrected a heart-lung artery problem in all but the smallest baby (Baby F), but echocardiograms will be performed on each today to measure their progress.

“Their chances are still 50-50 as long as they’re in this 72-hour critical period,” Worcester said. The babies will be 72 hours old shortly after 8 a.m. today. “I think the other babies (A through E) have a slightly better chance, but statistics are meaningless,” she said.

All six also suffer from a serious lung disease common in premature babies and are on respirators, she said. The babies are all “incredibly active,” which is a good sign, Worcester said.

Frustaci, 30, who is a high school English teacher, gave birth to four boys and three girls between 8:19 and 8:22 a.m. Tuesday at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, which is adjacent to Childrens Hospital. The last baby, a girl weighing 15 1/2 ounces and measuring 10 inches, was stillborn.

Frustaci was 28 weeks and two days pregnant at the time of the birth. A normal, uncomplicated pregnancy lasts 40 weeks.

At birth, the surviving babies ranged in weight from 1 pound, 1 ounce, to 1 pound, 13 ounces. Some, including “Peanut,” have lost weight, which is expected, doctors said. They measure between 10 and 13 3/4 inches.

‘Keep Fighting’

During the videotaped visit with his newborns Thursday, Samuel Frustaci, 32, was shown having a few intimate moments with two. He touched and stroked “Peanut” and encouraged him to “keep fighting.” After a few seconds, he added, “Keep up the good work, and don’t let anyone tell you different.”

Approaching Baby A, Frustaci made a kissing noise, then touched a kicking foot bandaged to secure a tube, and said, “We’re going to call you Bigfoot. Look at this foot!”

Then he held a small yellow T-shirt emblazoned with the Childrens Hospital logo, a brown teddy bear with a bandaged arm, against Baby A’s chest. It covered her entire body.

“It’s a little big for you,” he said with a laugh. Before departing, he kissed his own finger and touched it to the baby’s forehead.

Later, at a news conference, Samuel Frastaci said he wants to name Baby A Anna Maria, to go with the family’s Italian last name, but hinted that his wife may not agree.

‘Everyone’s Favorite’

He said it was exciting to “see my little flock.”

They know “when their daddy’s there,” he said.

“Peanut’s becoming everyone’s favorite because, I guess, everyone knows he’s got the toughest chance --the odds are against him,” he said.

“He knows when Daddy’s speaking and when he’s not.”

Informed by a reporter that a Washington, D.C., institute predicts it will cost $569,255 to raise six children at a moderate living standard through age 18, Frustaci replied, “I think you guys have got to make some donations.”

He reiterated that he and his wife had not set out to have a multiple birth. They turned to fertility drugs--also used before Patti Frustaci conceived the couple’s first son, now 14 months old --because they desperately wanted another child, he said.

“We knew there was a possibility of multiple births . . . (but) we were not out to have twins, triplets or sextuplets,” he said. “Knowing the Good Lord had put them in there for a purpose, we felt we had no right to destroy a gift given to us.”

Then, his voice choking with emotion, Samuel Frustaci told reporters: “A lot of people think I’m an outgoing person and flamboyant. There is also a sensitive side . . . that comes out when I’m with my children,” he said. “If in any way I’ve shown anything but that, that’s not true. I hope and pray continually that your prayers will be with the children.”

Photo Session OKd

Worcester on Thursday approved the father’s request that a photographer for People magazine be allowed to visit the neonatal unit today. Most other media representatives have not been allowed to photograph the babies or their mother and have had to use the few pictures and sparse videotape footage provided by the hospital.

The doctor insisted that the People photo session be brief, noting that Peanut’s oxygen level dropped after the videotaping Thursday, apparently from the exertion. Worcester is scheduled to be interviewed by a People magazine reporter today.

Hal Wingo, managing editor of People, confirmed Thursday that negotiations were in progress but said no contract had been signed.

All six infants receive varying amounts of oxygen to combat hyaline membrane disease, an affliction that tends to make the lungs collapse after each breath because of the lack of a lubricating substance to keep the air sacs open. Baby A’s oxygen level was reduced to a 28% mixture Thursday, coming close to the normal mix of 21% oxygen in the air, underscoring her progress.

On Wednesday, Worcester also had diagnosed all six to be suffering from a heart-lung problem common in low-weight premature babies.

The condition, called patent ductus arteriosus, is an opening between the aorta and the pulmonary artery that allows blood to flood the lungs, she said. The connection normally closes soon after birth in full-term babies.

Heart Murmurs

All were given a series of three doses of Indomethacin over Wednesday and Thursday, and it appeared that the medication may have caused the duct to close in all but the smallest infant, Worcester said.

Doctors using stethoscopes could not detect heart murmurs indicative of the heart-lung problem Thursday in babies A through E. However, an echocardiogram performed on Peanut showed he still has the condition, Worcester said.

The medication should take full effect by today, but Worcester would not say what doctors will do if Baby F does not improve. “We’ll address that when we get there,” she said. On Wednesday, Worcester said surgery would be the next step if medication is not effective.

The infants also have jaundice, a buildup of toxins in the system, which indicates their livers are not fully developed. That condition is not considered serious, Worcester said.

Patti Frustaci remained in good condition, her obstetrician, Dr. Martin Feldman, said. He said she may be transferred from the intensive care unit to the obstetrical floor late today and that she is eager to see her babies.

“I’m eager for her (to see them). I think it’s important for her. Right now, they’re just photographs and images on a screen,” he said.

She is suffering “a fair amount of post-op (operation) pain,” Feldman said, but he added that she wants to visit her children sitting in a wheelchair, not lying on a gurney.

She also wants to be able to shampoo her hair and put on makeup before she makes her first appearance because she is “concerned that her students see her in a good light,” Feldman said.

He said Patti Frustaci’s appearance has changed since photographs were taken two months ago that have been repeatedly published since. Her face had swelled from the effects of the pregnancy, he said.

Feldman added that she is passing much of the fluid that built up during the pregnancy, and that her high blood pressure--which prompted doctors to perform the Caesarean section Tuesday--”has come down nicely.”

Feldman said Patti Frustaci has asked him if she did anything to cause the stillbirth, “and I said, ‘Of course not.’ ”

Courage Praised

Patti Frustaci also earned praise from her mother and father, Bonnie and Dick Jorgensen of Orange, and her sister, Julie Lindahl of Riverside, during an afternoon news conference.

“Only Patti probably could do this. She’s a bright girl . . . . She gave it her best shot, and I’m proud of her decision . . . . They’re beautiful babies,” Bonnie Jorgensen said.

She added that she, too, had held the stillborn baby, whom she described as “perfect. There was nothing wrong with it.”

Dick Jorgensen said his wife had visited their daughter every other day during the eight-week hospitalization prior to the births and had grown closer to her.

He added that the family feels a special bond to Peanut. “He’s only about half the size of the others,” he said.

Lindahl, who had referred her sister to Feldman, heaped praise on the doctors and said she was amazed that the team was able to deliver seven babies in three minutes. “I didn’t think they could even get one baby out in that time.”

Statistician Takes Notes

Helen Kirk, who has kept statistics on multiple births for more than 46 years, arrived from Galveston, Tex., on Thursday to visit with Patti Frustaci and collect information for her files.

She told reporters that the last birth of septuplets occurred in 1974 to the Lange family in San Jose, Calif. Only one survived, said the statistician, who prefers to be called “Miss Helen.”

She said the chances of conceiving septuplets without the help of fertility drugs is one in 500 trillion in the United States, explaining that fertility rates vary from country to country. She said no comparable statistics exist for the conception of multiple births by women who have taken fertility drugs.

Asked what she thinks of those drugs, she hesitated a few seconds, then replied softly, “I’m an old lady, and that, to me, is fooling with Mother Nature.”

Donations, Offers

Among the gifts donated so far to the Frustaci family was a set of six hand-knit caps for the babies. Thea Calhoun, head of recreation therapy for Childrens Hospital, said a woman--known only as “Grandma Rose”--who is active in local senior citizens groups, stayed up all night Tuesday knitting the two pink and four multicolored bonnets for the two girls and four boys.

A local preschool, which plans to bring its charges in for a look at the babies, has donated a giant stuffed kangaroo, Calhoun said.

The Frustacis, who are Mormons, also can expect help from their church, according to United Press International.

Richard Piquet, bishop of the Arlington Third Ward, said the church will provide “whatever support they need, period.”

“That help may include a rotating staff of church members to help with cleaning and taking care of the children as long as the help is needed,” Piquet said.

Other offers, according to UPI, include 12 weeks’ worth of diaper service--about 500 diapers a week --from a Santa Ana firm, and an unlimited supply of Gerber products.

The Michigan-based company will offer the Frustacis “everything Gerber sells in grocery stores as long as they need it,” said John Whitlock, the company’s director of public relations. That ranges from food to bottles to safety caps for electrical outlets. The value of the offer might total $6,000 to $7,000, he said.