Southeast

COUNT ‘EM, FIVE: A 35-year-old Westchester woman gave birth to quintuplets--three girls and two boys--Tuesday in what hospital officials said was the only known case in the United States in which all the babies were born healthy.

Patty Shier gave birth to Sarah, Joshua, Jonathan, Rachel and Hannah at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center in a delivery that was dubbed “Operation Rainbow” by the hospital staff. It took its moniker from the fact that each baby was assigned a team with a designated color to help coordinate care--along with dad Scot, who was present for the delivery. The delivery of the five, by C-section, took only a minute and 35 seconds.

According to hospital officials, the Shier quintuplets are only the fifth set to be born in California since 1980. Officials also said it was the only time they could determine in which all the quints were healthy. None weighed less than 3 pounds, 5 ounces.

“It went like clockwork,” said Dr. Jose Perez, a neonatologist in the infant special care unit. “We had five highly skilled teams in the operating room caring for each child as soon as he or she was delivered. The ‘rainbow babies’ are doing well.”