THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 15, 1996 TAG: 9602150575
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Long : 107 lines
If their Apgar scores are any indication, the Jones boys are destined to be Olympic contenders.
The first quadruplets in Riverside Regional Medical Center's 75-year history checked in early Wednesday morning.
When the test that rates an infant's respiration, reflexes, muscle tone and color was administered at 1 and 5 minutes after birth, the infants scored: 8-9, 7-9, 9-9 and 7-8. A perfect score is 10.
``Anything over 7 is very good,'' said Dr. Sue K. Sayegh, the doctor who guided the infants into life on Valentine's Day. ``This is a perinatal success story!''
The babies were to have arrived by Caesarean section today. They obviously had something else in mind. Sayegh said the 26-year-old mother's water broke about 6 a.m., and the hospital went into action.
Sayegh was called at her Portsmouth home and arrived about 7:30.
``We never actually rehearsed an emergency plan, but everything went smoothly,'' she said soon after the births. ``Everybody was here within an hour. I don't usually drive fast, but I did this morning!''
Mother-times-four Angela Jones, who has been at Riverside since Dec. 26, was in the delivery room, waiting. The babies' father, Darin Jones, had arrived from the family's home in Isle of Wight County.
Three other doctors, an anesthesiologist, a scrub nurse, a supply nurse and four neonatal nurses assisted in the delivery.
``Everything was very controlled,'' Sayegh said. ``There was no pressing urgency. I was so focused on doing it quickly that I don't have much recollection of anything except - we kept delivering babies.''
The babies were born in this order: at 8:21, Kameron, 2 pounds, 13.2 ounces, 15 1/2 inches; Karon at 8:23, 2 pounds, 14.5 ounces, 16 inches; Kahlil and Karlyle were born simultaneously at 8:24. Kahlil weighed 3 pounds, 7 ounces, 15 3/4 inches; Karlyle weighed 3 pounds, 1 ounce and was 15 1/4 inches long.
Angela Jones, who took no fertility drugs, had first been told in September that she was having twins. She's a twin. Her husband has twin brothers. There are a number of other twins on both sides of the family.
She later found out that four babies were on the way. That's when Sayegh, a specialist in high-risk pregnancies, got involved.
But none of the problems that could have occurred ever did. Quads are born naturally without fertility drugs in one of only about 600,000 births.
``So many complications were possible,'' the doctor said. ``I did not predict it to turn out this well. We had a little luck, good care, healthy genes, a positive attitude and a lot of prayer.''
Just a week before the birth of her four baby boys, Angela Jones said that there had been some talk early in the pregnancy about aborting two of the infants to increase chances of survival for the other two.
``Darin and I both said `no.' I told them that God had seen fit to give me these babies, and now it was up to Him.''
Hospital nurses, who knew that the mother would be nervous about the results of tests scheduled Wednesday to determine the maturity of the infants' lungs, had planned a shower for the afternoon. The shower, like the birth, went off without a hitch, attended by a ``very tired'' mother.
The Joneses, who live in a two-bedroom mobile home and drive a compact car, also have been showered by gifts from the Hampton Roads community. More than 140 civic groups, churches, businesses and individuals have responded, a hospital spokesman said.
``This family still needs a larger car,'' said Bud Ramey, the hospital's public relations director. ``They need a larger place to live. And they need help with the expenses associated with having quadruplets.''
Darin Jones owns and operates a small house-cleaning business. Until September, Angela Jones was an education major at Christopher Newport University. The couple has one other child, Shakeeta, 4.
The hospital and medical staff had ``toyed with the idea'' of planning the perfect birth on Valentine's Day, Sayegh said, but thought it best to plan for the necessary tests closer to the 32nd week of gestation, which would have been Friday.
Mother Nature must have thought the idea heart-warming.
``Isn't this just wonderful?'' the doctor said, giggling. ``Valentine's Day! It's been a great morale booster for everybody in the hospital.''
Meanwhile, Angela Jones, surrounded by relatives from across the state, was resting in her room. Darin Jones had gone home for a while, to sleep.
And four new Isle of Wight County citizens, all tiny and perfectly formed, were snuggled in their beds in the hospital's intensive care nursery.
The babies and their mother could be home as early as Saturday. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
JOHN H. SHEALLY II/The Virginian-Pilot
1. Kahlil, with dad Darin Jones
2. Karlyle
3. Karon
4. Kameron
Angela Jones, who took no fertility drugs, was told early on that
she was having twins. She is a twin, and her husband, Darin, above
left, has twin brothers. Quadruplets are born naturally in 1 of only
about 600,000 births.
Graphic
TO HELP
Riverside is assisting the Jones family by coordinating
donations. Anyone interested should call Mary Thompson, RN, at
594-2194. Drop sites have been established at Lake Taylor Hospital
in Norfolk, the Riverside Medical Care Center-Nansemond on U.S.
Route 17 in Isle of Wight and at a site in Newport News.
KEYWORDS: QUADRUPLETS by CNB