Quadruple Caesarean

Ten obstetricians attended one mother at Philadelphia's Lying-in Hospital last week. So did a pediatrician and four assistants. Some of the doctors around Mrs. Joseph Cirminello, an SEC secretary, were merely spectators. But many were needed, because Mrs. Cirminello was being delivered of quadruplets by Caesarean section under spinal anesthesia--a feat unique in medical history. The operation was done six weeks before the normal birth date because the doctors thought that waiting would endanger the lives both of the mother and her brood. The obstetrician in charge: Dr. John Calvin Ullery of Upper Darby.

As the three girls and a boy were born (weights: 3 Ibs. 8 oz., 2 Ibs. 14 oz., 3 Ibs. 8 oz., 3 Ibs. 5 oz.--more than the Dionnes at first weighing), each was handed to an assistant, who put the infant in an incubator. Mrs. Cirminello, who had been told she would have twins, was surprised. Mr. Cirminello, an SEC analyst, who knew all along it would be quadruplets, was haggard.

Quadruplets are especially ticklish business because they are usually born prematurely, are too weak to survive the ordeal of birth--the U.S. would get about five sets a year were it not for high mortality soon after birth. At week's end, all the Cirminellos were doing well.

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