2nd of Frustaci Septuplets Leaves Hospital for Home

Richard Charles Frustaci was released Thursday into his parents’ care Thursday, the second of three surviving septuplets to leave the hospital for home.

Attached to a three-foot-long oxygen tank and a cardiac monitor, the 5-pound, 7-ounce baby trembled and cried as his mother, Patti, carried him from Childrens Hospital of Orange County to the family car for the trip home to Riverside.

The 18-inch baby’s worst difficulty in the hospital was breathing, according to Dr. Ralph Rucker.

Rucker, associate director of the newborn care unit, said Richard Charles, now just under 4 months old, had spent 50 days on a respiratory ventilator and had suffered several episodes of infection.

‘Should Be Normal’

Despite Richard Charles’ low birth weight--one pound, 15 ounces--Rucker indicated that the baby “came out of the nursery about as intact and normal as any other infant. Baby Richard’s intellectual and physical development should be normal.”

Like his sister, Patricia Ann, who was released from the hospital Sept. 6, Richard Charles will be hooked to a cardiac monitor for the next six to eight months to detect any breathing or cardiac irregularities.

Richard Charles spent more time on a respiratory system than his sister and will receive low doses of oxygen through a nasal tube for the next few months, Rucker said. All of the septuplets suffered from hyaline membrane disease, a lung ailment common to premature babies that causes the lungs to collapse with each breath. Unlike his sister, Richard Charles has scarred lungs. Rucker said it is too early to tell whether the scarring will cause lasting damage.

While the Frustaci family visited the hospital, Patricia Ann received a checkup and, Rucker said, weighed in at more than six pounds and “looked gorgeous.”

Bigger Car Needed

As she carried Richard Charles from the hospital, mother Patti, 30, a Riverside high school teacher, said the baby was “doing fine but just a little cold” and encouraged him to open his eyes for the photographers. Father Sam Frustaci, 31, an industrial salesman, busied himself with fitting his wife, the two infants and their 1-year-old son Joseph into the family’s station wagon.

“Looks like we’re going to have to get a bigger car,” Frustaci said.

The hospital has made arrangements for a nurse to help the Frustaci family care for the two infants they now have at home.

Rucker said that Stephen Earl, the only surviving septuplet still in the hospital, should be released within the next four weeks.

Asked why the infants were released when so much effort was still required for their care, Rucker said that “it’s just a better situation for babies at home than here at the hospital.”

Rucker foresees no complications for Richard Charles and joked that the “most dangerous part of his life is just getting out into the world.”

Progress to Be Checked

Like his sister’s, Richard Charles’ progress will be checked at two- to four-week intervals by the hospital.

The septuplets were delivered May 21 by Caesarean section. It was the first recorded birth of septuplets in the world. Births of eight and nine babies have occurred, but in no case has a baby survived. Besides suffering from hyaline membrane disease, the seven Frustaci infants also had an opening in the duct between the aorta and pulmonary artery.

One of the septuplets, later named Christina Elizabeth, was stillborn. David Anthony--the smallest of the infants--died 64 hours after birth. James Martin died after 16 days and Bonnie Marie died three days after that.

The babies were 12 weeks premature and all weighed under two pounds when born. The septuplets were conceived after Patti Frustaci was treated with the fertility drug Pergonal.