He Delivered Quints 3 Years Ago : Thanks for Doctor Arrives--Fivefold

Dr. Louis Gluck shook his head and beamed as he looked at his five small visitors Thursday at UCI Medical Center in Orange.

He hadn’t seen the children for almost three years. And he had delivered each of them, one after another, on Sept. 19, 1983, in San Diego: Regina, Paola, Natalia, Daniela and Alberto Garcin--quintuplets.

The Garcins are the only surviving quintuplets ever born in California, according to the state Center of Health Statistics.

The four girls in identical yellow dresses offered Gluck kisses at the reunion in the hospital’s neonatalogy wing. Alberto, in yellow pants, stood shyly with his sisters as camera flashes blazed.

Their mother, Lorenza Garcin, 28, said, “I wanted my children to see Dr. Gluck,” who had delivered them at UC San Diego Medical Center where he worked for 15 years before coming to Irvine. “It was because of Dr. Gluck that they are so healthy.”

Lorenza and her husband, Alberto, 34, are from Guadalajara, where he owns and operates a toy factory. The couple also own a home in La Jolla.

Three years ago, Lorenza Garcin was taking fertility pills when she learned that she was going to have multiple births.

“I came to Dr. Gluck at UC San Diego because a friend of mine in Mexico told me that he was the best doctor in the world for treating babies,” she said.

Gluck, 61, in fact, has been called “the father of neonatalogy” and is known internationally for delivery and care of premature newborns. He started the nation’s first neonatalogy department in 1960 at Yale University Hospital.

But delivery of quintuplets posed an extraordinary problem, Gluck recalled. “I was apprehensive, of course,” he said. “But we went at it with a great deal of planning” and a crew of 55 people.

“We planned it like you would a symphony orchestra. We had five teams (of medical workers), with five numbers and five colors. We had all the equipment ready. We’d get together for midnight practices at the hospital to see how fast we could move in case of an emergency.

“But as it turned out, it (the delivery) was an elective thing. It was in the afternoon, and we didn’t have to go through all the emergency procedures. But the big challenge was that we would be having there five babies within a few minutes of each other, and what are you going to do with them? That was the trick.”

The babies were born in about the 30th week, about 10 weeks premature, which almost always occurs with multiple births.

“The thing that made the difference was the mother,” Gluck said. “She was absolutely wonderful. She did the thing that so many women find so difficult, and that was to lie in bed and do nothing but allow the babies to grow. She was spectacular. I’ve never seen anyone so patient, so willing just to lie still.”

Lorenza Garcin brushed back a strand of her brownish-blond hair and smiled at the memory. “I stayed in bed for 3 1/2 months,” she said.

With the multiple pregnancy “she put on almost 100 pounds,” Gluck said. “The amazing thing was that within a few days after delivery, there she was wearing blue jeans again, looking wonderful.”

Gluck said that from the quintuplets’ births “we learned a tremendous amount, and this is valuable information in caring for future multiple births.”

The Garcins wrote to him often from Guadalajara, sending photos of the children. But this was their first meeting since they left San Diego a few months after birth.

“I can’t tell you what a joy this is,” he said. “This is just overwhelming to me.”

The quintuplets, with brown eyes and sandy-colored hair, stood in line holding each other’s hands for one round of photos, then sat in a line of chairs for more.

Alberto looked a bit frightened. “I identify with Alberto,” Gluck said as he moved to stand with the boy.

The Garcins have one other child, Lorenza, 6, who accompanied her mother and the quintuplets to the hospital.

“They are a wonderful family, very supporting,” Gluck said. “You can see how healthy the children are. And they are also mentally gifted, very bright.”

The five little visitors, who mainly speak Spanish, each hugged him before they left. “What a thrill,” said Gluck. “We’ve had a great love feast today.”