4 of 5 Frustaci Babies Show Big Improvement

Four of the five surviving Frustaci septuplets showed considerable improvement Saturday. And while the condition of the fifth baby was unchanged, doctors were heartened that his condition had not worsened.

“The prognosis for all these children is that their condition is critically stable, and I do not expect any of these babies to expire in the next 24 to 48 hours,” Dr. Carrie Worcester said at a news conference Saturday at Childrens Hospital of Orange County in Orange.

“One never knows, but I don’t expect a turn for the worse,” said Worcester, a neonatologist and director of the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. “Every day that goes by, I’ll probably smile a little more.”

Worcester said Babies A, C and E had shown significant improvement in their blood pressure and breathing rates. But they remain on respirators to help their underdeveloped lungs.

Baby D, a 1-pound, 12-ounce girl who had been of great concern to the team of neonatologists attending the surviving septuplets, was “100% improved” Saturday, Worcester said.

Baby B, a 1-pound, 12-ounce boy, remains the most critically ill. But “Baby B also has not worsened,” said Worcester, adding that was a very good sign.

Tests on the surviving infants born to Patti Frustaci, a Riverside high school teacher, showed that medication had successfully closed the duct from the aorta to the pulmonary artery in each baby, eliminating the problem of blood flooding into their lungs, which already are stricken with severe hyaline membrane disease.

The disease, common among premature infants, makes the lungs tend to collapse after each breath, because they lack a lubricating substance to keep the air sacs open. It reaches its peak 72 hours after birth, but some infants can require respirator support for weeks or months after birth, Worcester said.

The septuplets were born by Caesarean section to Frustaci last Tuesday morning at nearby St. Joseph Hospital. The seventh child, a 15 1/2-ounce girl, was stillborn. Her death was attributed to the mother’s increasingly high blood pressure before birth. A sixth infant, a boy designated Baby F and nicknamed “Peanut” because he was much smaller than the others, died early Friday of cardiopulmonary failure after 64 hours of life.

The births occurred in Frustaci’s 29th week of pregnancy--about 11 weeks premature.

Frustaci, 30, was reported to be much improved Saturday. But she will remain in St. Joseph Hospital’s intensive care unit at least until today, said Tes Pane, director of obstetrical and gynecological nursing at the hospital.

The mother will not be able to see her babies until she is released from the intensive care ward, Pane said.

Pane said that Frustaci sat up and walked Friday evening for the first time since the delivery, but was still in considerable pain from the birth. Pane said the very earliest the mother could be released from the hospital would be Tuesday.

“Medically, she’s in about the same condition, but she is feeling much better,” Pane said.

She said that Frustaci is recuperating gradually from pregnancy-induced hypertension, a condition that prompted her obstetrician to order the Caesarean delivery on Tuesday.

Pane said that Frustaci has selected names for the children but will not make a final decision on them until after she sees the infants.

Funeral Delayed

Funeral arrangements will not be made for babies F and G until the mother is released from the hospital, Pane said.

Pane said that Frustaci had been depressed by the death of Baby F on Friday but that the time the mother spent with the infant after his death was “very, very beneficial for her.”

“Mothers who give birth and lose a child have to be able to express that love for the baby they’ve been carrying inside them,” Pane said. “If you don’t get to do that, there’s a void in your life.”

It is expected to be beneficial for both mother and infants when Frustaci visits the surviving septuplets, and Pane said Frustaci is anxious to do so. Meanwhile, the mother will view unedited films of her new babies provided by CBS and NBC news crews.

For the first time since their birth, Samuel Frustaci, the 32-year-old father of the septuplets, did not attend a hospital news conference. Pane said that he had been spending time with their 14-month-old son, Joseph, who--like the septuplets--was conceived with the aid of a fertility drug.