5 Babies Remain Behind : Joyous Mother Leaves Hospital

Cradling a bouquet of roses while her five surviving septuplets remained behind, a joyous Patti Frustaci left St. Joseph Hospital on Wednesday to continue recuperating at her parents’ home in Orange.

“We You Mom and Dad, From Patti, James, Stephen, Bonnie and Richard,” proclaimed a thin vertical banner lowered from the fifth-floor window of adjacent Childrens Hospital of Orange County, where the five 9-day-old Frustaci infants are in critical but stable condition in the neonatal intensive care unit.

“They’re beautiful. I hope they all make it,” Frustaci said in answer to questions as she was whisked in a wheelchair down a hospital ramp, past a bank of reporters and into a waiting car. “They look good. Some are sicker than others.”

Wearing a lavender robe and followed by a wagon full of stuffed animals attached to balloons, Frustaci, 30, emerged from the hospital about 12:30 p.m. to the cheers and applause of employees who crowded several balconies above her exit route.

Feeling Great but Tired

The mother said she was feeling “great, great,” but a few seconds later, answering the same question, she admitted she was tired.

“Doesn’t she look great?” an ebullient Samuel Frustaci, 32, boomed as he accompanied his wife down the ramp. He thanked the news media for their interest. “Keep up your prayers,” he said. “We’ll need them.”

Then, Sam and Patti Frustaci each gave a hug to Dr. Martin Feldman, the obstetrician who delivered the seven infants by Caesarean section May 21, and sped off.

The couple stopped at a nearby restaurant for lunch of barbecued beef and a hamburger before heading to the home of Patti Frustaci’s parents, Dick and Bonnie Jorgensen of Orange, where the new mother was expected to spend the night.

The five surviving babies--Patricia Ann, James Martin, Stephen Earl, Bonnie Marie and Richard Charles--are on respirators because they suffer from hyaline membrane disease, a lung affliction common to premature babies. They are not expected to leave the hospital for some time, perhaps not until August.

The sixth-born septuplet, David Anthony (nicknamed “Peanut”) died 64 hours after birth, and the seventh, later named Christina Elizabeth, was stillborn.

The second-born, James Martin, is in the most critical condition and has been given a 50-50 chance of survival. The fourth-born, Bonnie Marie, also is not improving, but the remaining three are doing well, hospital spokesmen said.

The babies were born 12 weeks prematurely and weighed between 1 pound, 1 ounce, and 1 pound, 13 ounces at birth. Patti Frustaci had taken fertility drugs before the births.

The Frustacis also have a 14-month-old son, who likewise was conceived after the mother took fertility drugs.

After his prize patient departed Wednesday, Feldman said Patti Frustaci’s “outlook is good. I think deep down she thinks all are going to make it, but she understands their problems.”

The obstetrician--after whom the first boy, James Martin, was named--said he and the Frustacis, who wanted a large family, knew from the beginning that the chances were against all seven surviving, he said.

Three Are Definite

“We delivered seven, wound up with six, and now we’re down to five,” he said.

“Patti definitely is going to get some. She’s definitely going to take home three, and most likely four,” Feldman said. “I think we’ve accomplished a great deal.”

While the major threat to the five surviving septuplets is the lung disease, all have overcome two other medical problems--an opening in the duct between the aorta and pulmonary artery, and jaundice.

A spokeswoman for St. Joseph Hospital said the bill--excluding the doctors’ charges--is more than $35,000. The bill for the infants’ care is expected to exceed $700,000. Sam Frustaci, an industrial equipment salesman, has said his insurance covers each infant up to $1 million.