West Hills Woman Gives Birth to Quintuplets

A West Hills woman who lost her home and everything she owned in the Northridge earthquake gave birth to quintuplets Thursday.

Marcella Quezada, 26, whose doctors said she took fertility drugs, gave birth to the five babies--two boys and three girls--four weeks prematurely at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Woodland Hills.

Even before she had a chance to see her babies after the Cesarean delivery, she expressed concern about how she and her husband, a cook, will provide for them, hospital officials said.

“What they need most is a van,” said Fran Hodes of the hospital’s social services department. Hodes added that a baby products company will donate formula and that the hospital is not charging for the long, complicated pregnancy and delivery.

The babies were delivered between 1:15 and 1:19 p.m. Thursday, doctors said. The first was a 3-pound, 10-ounce boy, followed by a 3-pound, 11-ounce boy, then a 2-pound, 2-ounce girl, a 3-pound, 1-ounce girl and finally a 3-pound, 2-ounce girl.

Although they haven’t been named individually, their parents already have picked out the names Andrew, Raymond, Tiffany, Kimberly, and Patricia, nurses said.

The babies are not on respirators and are breathing by themselves, Dr. Michael Tabak said.

The new mother was resting comfortably hours after the surgery but was too groggy to be interviewed, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Sherry said the odds of quintuplets occurring naturally is 1 in 50 million to 80 million, and even with the fertility drugs Quesada’s case is “still very, very, very rare.”

To prevent complications, Quezada has been hospitalized since November. As a result, she had to quit her job at a Carl’s Jr. restaurant, according to her father, Mario Lopez. Before that, she had worked at a McDonald’s, he said.

She and her husband, Ramon, 24, lost their condominium in Canoga Park last January in the quake that destroyed their possessions, he said.

“They lost everything. We are inside a hole. But I’m happy with the quintuplets. We need them right now. Probably God sent them as a new hope,” Lopez said.