One octuplet suffers respiratory problem

December 26, 1998
Web posted at: 6:54 p.m. EST (2354 GMT)

HOUSTON (CNN) -- The first boy of the world's only known surviving octuplets suffered a serious respiratory setback overnight, but his condition has now stabilized, Texas Children's Hospital said Saturday.

While all six girls and two boys remain in critical condition at the hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, six babies are now breathing without respirators, doctors added Saturday.

"Ikem (baby F) suffered a serious respiratory setback during the night. He is now breathing with the help of a ventilator and receiving 30 percent oxygen," the hospital said in a statement.

Odera (baby E) remained on a ventilator supplying 100 percent oxygen, and doctors have estimated it will be several more weeks before she can breathe on her own.

Shortly after her birth, she was found to have a heart abnormality called patent ductus arteriosis -- a defect of the ductus, a short blood vessel connecting the pulmonary artery and the aorta.

The mother, Nkem Chukwu, 27, was eating well and able to walk around her room at the nearby St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston. "The mother's condition is stable," medical staff said.

She had been very weak after the births earlier this month, but doctors said she was now eating well and regaining strength.

In what doctors called a medical first, the first of the eight babies, Ebuka (baby A) was born December 8, about 12 weeks premature. Last Sunday, the remaining seven babies were delivered by Caesarean section.

Doctors said Thursday they were increasingly optimistic that the octuplets would survive. Their father Iyke , 41, said he was "stunned beyond belief" by the births.

The mother had taken fertility drugs. When it was discovered she was carrying multiple fetuses, she was offered the opportunity to abort some of them but declined for "religious and personal" purposes, according to , chief of neonatology at St. Luke's Hospital.

Reuters contributed to this report.