Reunion Times 3 : ‘Triplet Center of the World’ Rings Out With Sounds, Sights of Those Who Were Born There

Patti Frustaci manned a video camera as 2 1/2-year-old Stephen, one of her three surviving septuplets, toddled across the room, balloon in hand.

Janet Lederhaus mopped up spills as Eric, Jeff, Keith, and Kate--her 4-year-old quadruplets--munched cookies and croissants.

And 3 1/2-year-old triplets Jennifer, James and Ryer Pickren--she in a red party dress, her brothers in matching blazers--smiled shyly and shook hands with Dr. Ragnar Amlie, the doctor who once cared for them.

With cookies and punch, a visit from Santa Claus and kids underfoot everywhere, St. Joseph Hospital in Orange Tuesday held its fifth annual triplet reunion, a Christmas party for 13 sets of triplets, one set of quadruplets and three surviving Frustaci septuplets all born at the facility since 1982.

St. Joseph, with its special neonatal monitoring systems and high-risk maternity care, has had more than its share of multiple births. In fact, so many triplets have been born at the hospital that staff members sometimes joke that it is “the triplet center of the world.” The odds against having triplets are 9,300 to 1.

Though Amlie knew the numbers by heart, he was amazed by Tuesday’s turnout.

Thirty-six children, ages 3 months to five years, attended the reunion, “and I was involved in delivering most of them. It’s great to see them back,” Amlie said, pushing his glasses back on his head and bending on one knee to greet one former patient after another.

When he had attended to them in the neonatal intensive care unit, he said: “You saw a small, premature baby. And now look at them--running around and talking.”

As impressed as he was by the children, Amlie said he was equally impressed by their parents.

“I don’t think the parents knew what they were getting into,” he said. “I have three children--but not all at the same time! And some of these children had problems-- hearing problems, problems in development--but overall the credit goes to the parents. Look at them. The (children) look healthy and well behaved.”

If their early days were precarious--some of the triplets weighed just 1 1/2 pounds at birth--the children at Tuesday’s reunion looked anything but frail as they wolfed down cookies and touched noses with The Three Pigs, costumed characters borrowed for the afternoon from Disneyland.

While the children played, their parents exchanged notes on the hectic days and sleepless nights of living with triplets.

“It’s tough at first,” recalled Michelle Hoover, 36, of Anaheim Hills, remembering the “210 diapers a week” when Ashley, Andrew and Austin, now four, were babies.

But like other mothers at the reunion, Hoover had no regrets. She is expecting a new baby soon--just one this time. But after rearing three at a time, “One baby’s going to be a letdown,” she said.

With three children aged 3 1/2, Villa Park realtor Ryer Pickren said that he is “34 going on 90. I keep a ticket to Mexico--one way--under my pillow at all times.”

But he and his wife, Jenean, who is again working full time as an escrow officer, said they were coping just fine with their triplets. They subscribe to a newsletter for parents of triplets and often trade advice with other parents of triplets.

Besides, they had always planned to have a family. So having triplets was an efficient way to do it. “I was planning on having two children,” Jenean Pickren said, “I just got my whole family in one swoop.”

Of all the parents at the reunion, Frustaci appeared the most harried, as she tried to keep a watchful eye on toddlers Patricia and Richard but periodically deserted them to chase their brother, Stephen, across the room.

“They’re in their terrible twos. And it’s non-stop,” Frustaci confessed, “You’re always on your toes. I just came from the Orange Mall, where they had their picture taken with Santa and they all started crying.”

Frustaci and her husband, Sam, who live in Riverside, have had a hard time since their septuplets were born 12 weeks premature on May 21, 1985. The birth made international headlines, but one baby was stillborn. Within the next three weeks, three more died.

Their three surviving babies were ill much of their first year, she said. Also, the Frustacis filed a $3.2-million suit against the doctor who injected her with fertility drugs, charging he could have averted “a medical catastrophe” if he had detected the large number of eggs she carried and prevented fertilization.

Despite the many frustrations, Frustaci said she has enjoyed watching her surviving children grow. “Patricia, the first born, is the leader. She does everything first. Richard is Mr. Mischief.”

Despite his actions Tuesday afternoon, “Stephen is the passive one, usually he just watches,” she said.

Daryl and Denise Lisenberg, an Anaheim couple whose triplets were among the youngest at the reunion--barely three months old--also said they were enjoying their new responsibilities. For the reunion Tuesday, they had dressed Britanny, Heather and Sean in Christmas-red pajamas.

To be sure, the Lisenbergs had expected twins, and recently moved to a larger house. But they love the babies. “Just to see them smile, to see them giggle . . . it’s fun,” Denise Lisenberg said.

Cradling one of the babies in his arms, Daryl Lisenberg offered advice for prospective parents of triplets. “It takes lots of patience,” he said. “Lots of love. Lots of money.”