When this woman went into labor, doctors couldn’t stop screaming when they saw what she gave birth to. Dr. Lewis was well-known among the hospital staff for his stoic nature. He’d been in active practice for over two decades and had witnessed a lot of heartbreaking medical cases. To keep himself from backing out of his beloved profession, he’d learned to harden himself so that patients’ cases didn’t affect him too much. On this particular day, he was scheduled for a cesarian section.
As with all of his previous surgeries, he had prepared adequately for it by studying the scans and reference materials. He didn’t believe that doing the same type of surgeries over and over made it easier. It was his principle that every case was different and should be treated as such. Dr. Lewis thought he’d seen everything. He was a world-class specialist and was leading the surgery involving the birth of quadruplets. But when he saw what the woman gave birth to, he shouted in sheer astonishment. “What was this?” He could hardly believe his eyes.
The doctors working with him were taken aback to see Dr. Lewis shout like that. Many of them were younger doctors who, in all their time at the hospital, had only witnessed the side to him that nothing could ruffle. However, when they saw what he saw, those doctors started shouting uncontrollably too. From the belly of the woman that was lying unconscious, four babies were born, but there was something else. This woman was Galina, and the incredible story of her delivery still sends shivers down people’s spines.
There was a team of 30 medics in the labor ward with Galina who were committed to saving her and her babies. But they didn’t know what to make of this new thing. First of all, Galina was having her babies too early. She had only been 24 weeks and 6 days pregnant when they proceeded with the surgery. It took the doctors 5 minutes, between 9:04 and 9:08, to bring out all the babies.
The babies had been too tiny, weighing 630 and 730 g, and needed urgent attention. In anticipation of this, the medics had split themselves up in groups, and the group responsible for transporting Galina’s babies to the Intensive Neonatal Care Unit had done that swiftly. It had been a matter of life and death for the young ones whose lungs weren’t even fully developed yet. They were placed in incubators and supplied with ample oxygen. They were put under constant surveillance because their lives were at great risk.
An oral baby carried to term was usually born between 38 and 40 weeks. Those babies also normally weighed between 3 and 4 kg. But none of Galina’s babies weighed up to 1 kg. Galina’s husband, Simon, was pacing the hospital hallways anxiously awaiting news on the outcome of her C-section. He felt his muscles bunch up painfully in his upper back and neck. Constantly, he rubbed those muscles, flexed his back, and swung his body this way and that, but it failed to relieve the tension in those areas. Simon glanced at the large clock placed at a strategic position in the hallway.
He noted that the surgery was supposed to have ended over 30 minutes ago, but all this time had already passed by, and not one doctor had come out to meet him. Had something gone wrong in the labor ward? Was that why they were hesitating to break the news to him? The antiseptic smell around them suddenly triggered his nausea. He tightened his jaw so hard to weigh it out that his teeth were at risk of breaking. Unable to take the suspense anymore, Simon briskly walked in the direction of the ward. He had no idea what he’d do when he got to the doctor or if they would even let him in, but he had to try.
Coincidentally, as Simon reached for the doorknob leading into the ward, it swung open before he even had a chance to touch it. Dr. Lewis, who was clothed in scrubs and a hairnet, came out. He was surprised to see Simon standing in front of him. No sooner had their eyes met that Simon started shooting multiple questions at the doctor.
He wanted to know everything, especially when his wife was waking up and how his children were doing. Fully understanding Simon’s predicament as a father himself, Dr. Lewis smiled at him kindly. Then he did something in that moment that he promised himself never to do again in practice. He touched Simon’s upper arm and, looking him squarely in the eyes, he assured him that his wife would make a full recovery. As for his children, there was substantial hope to hold on to. Simon didn’t understand the weight of those words until much later. At that moment, he thought it was empty reassurance, and it did so little to ease them.
Simon wanted to remain at the hospital overnight. It was sure that he wasn’t directly involved in whatever the outcome was, but it was jarring to go home and wait for a call. Staying behind at the hospital made more sense to him. At least if anything came up, he was right there. Seeing how determined Simon was, the nurses got involved. They badgered him to go home because there was nothing he could do for his wife by staying overnight, and in his exhausted state for that matter. Reluctantly, he went to stand outside the room his wife had been moved to and just stood there. He tried to think of what to say but gulped hard, moving his Adam’s apple with that. It was difficult for him to form words that conveyed his deep feelings of fear and intense for Galina.
“I love you forever, and our family will be together again.” Those words were simple enough but had a heavy meaning. It was the summary of everything they’d been through together and the storms they’d survived. He believed that this was another storm, and they’d make it out alive. He wasn’t sure about stronger because the very limits of his strength were being stretched, and he was at a breaking point.
That night, Simon returned home. It was past 9:00 p.m. when he got there, but his two older children were awake. He was surprised because they were meant to be sleeping since they had school the next day. His mother was watching them, so he looked to her for an explanation. She shrugged and asked him to talk to his children. They wanted to know about their mother and new siblings. Were they all right? Did he see them? When would they come home? They couldn’t sleep because they’d been wandering, and their grandma wouldn’t say anything either.
Simon recognized the children’s nervousness because it mirrored his own. Knowing he needed to give them some assurance but not trusting himself to come up with convincing words, he borrowed Dr. Lewis’s words. He placed a hand on each of their shoulders, made eye contact, and in his warmest tone, he said, “Your mom will make a full recovery, and there’s plenty of hope that your siblings will be fine.” Fortunately, his children believed them. He kissed them good night and tucked them into their beds. Once they were sound asleep, he returned to the living room and was startled that his mother was still there. She suspected that something was afoot and coaxed the truth from him.
Simon didn’t know he was suppressing a
lot of his emotions until his mother lovingly told him that he’d done his best and Galina didn’t hold anything against him. His shoulders quaked as he sobbed on his mother’s shoulders. He felt like a little boy again and hadn’t felt that way in decades. The situation with his wife was tearing him up and bringing to surface all his insecurities. He didn’t want to think of anything going wrong with Galina because if it did, he would never forgive himself.
Alone in her hospital room, Galina stirred in her sleep but didn’t wake up. Simon moved her head this way and that until she found a comfortable position, and she relaxed in her dream. She was walking through a beautiful golden field; beside her was Simon, and they were holding hands. They looked so young, free, and happy. She couldn’t recall the last time they’d been that way. As a young girl, Galina had witnessed her parents’ falling out. Her father had been cheating on her mother with a secretary, and her poor mother had been hurting a lot. The woman had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder a few years ago, but the situation with her husband had escalated her illness. She had built her life around her husband, giving up on her dreams to become an actress to make a home together and raise children. Her husband had eventually divorced her.
The cheating, the subsequent divorce, and the bipolar disorder had knocked the winds out of her. She had lost the will to get out of bed daily and pretend to live for something. Several times, Galina had come to her, crying and begging her to get up, but she would look at her sadly and remain there. Galina had learned early to look out for herself because no one was coming to save her. Her father hadn’t bothered sending money for upkeep, and her mother was so sick she couldn’t work. Galina had gone hungry on many days; their home had gone without electricity, water, and gas sometimes, and she had struggled at school. She had barely graduated from high school.
Then she attended Community College, but while there, she had learned that happiness was connected to purpose. Galina had interrupted her purpose to be making plenty of money so that both she and the people she loved would never go without. Galina and Simon’s paths had crossed when she was in her late 20s. Galina had bought an apartment in the same building that Simon and his mother lived in. The mother-son duo had been friendly to her from the start, but Galina had been closer to Simon’s mother. She was at a stage in her life where she had accepted to be without a significant other.
Her relationship life had been a failure after failure, although she’d succeeded at making hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. But Simon’s mother had brought Galina and Simon together, and they had easily gone from being friends to dating and then to marriage. However, the relationship had experienced terrible friction because of their different personalities and beliefs. Galina was the type of woman who was razor-sharp and focused on her goals, unlike Simon, who laid out goals but didn’t necessarily put himself under pressure to achieve all of them.
Simon had been able to put up with Galina’s obsessive needs to be in control, but when she’d accused him of being lazy, he’d sparked. His voice had gone deadly quiet when he told her that she was the problem; all she cared about was making money instead of spending time with her husband and creating a family. Then had been a slap in Galina’s face because he knew how much she wanted children, but conceiving had been so difficult. Besides, he had known she was working hard so that they could pay for their dream home. It had been such a low blow, and he regretted it, especially knowing her background. Eventually, the couple had to see a marriage counselor to avoid a divorce.
They had tried out three different counselors before finding a right fit that helped them work through their problems. As for children, they had experienced more than five miscarriages before going for fertility treatments. After a long cycle of that, Galina had conceived her first two children by intrauterine insemination. She had them one after the other. Some years into raising their children, they had wanted to have more but had decided to put it off for a few more years. Fertility treatments were hard work and a strain all around, emotionally, financially, and physically. Unexpectedly, Galina had conceived, but she hadn’t known until 12 weeks into the pregnancy. The moment they had found out, they had gone for an ultrasound but had received devastating news.
Their unborn baby had a hole in his heart. The doctor had told them that this wasn’t a death sentence but would require tons of extra care. It had been a tough pill for the couple to swallow. It got even worse a few weeks later. Galina had a nightmare; in it, she saw her baby waving her goodbye with a bright smile on his angelic face. In her very presence, he went up to heaven. Galina had awoken from sleep trembling. She had gone to the doctor’s office, and they’d informed her that the baby was gone; he had to be born at 15 weeks old as stillborn.
The family had buried him, and it had been such a somber affair. After this, the couple hadn’t wanted more children and had focused on the family they already had. However, Galina had fainted one day, and when she’d undergone tests, they’d seen she was pregnant with quadruplets. The couple had been so dumbfounded but had accepted God’s blessing. Unfortunately, Galina had fallen extremely sick in the following months. Then, COVID-19 had struck. With the world in danger and Galina at risk of contracting the virus with its heavy consequences, the doctors had no choice but to birth the babies at almost 25 weeks of pregnancy. But during the C-section, Dr. Lewis discovered something incredible, something that made him scream out of joy. After they took the four babies out, the team of doctors saw two additional babies who had managed to stay undetected the whole time.
The best part was that they were healthy. The sextuplets were five girls and a boy. The chances of sextuplets are one in a 4.7 billion births. The last time it happened in France, where Galina gave birth, was some 30 years before, in 1988. After many months in the hospital, the sextuplets were able to go home at almost 1 year old, and Dr. Lewis insisted on frequently following them up.
As far as anyone knew, they were a medical wonder that survived despite being so small and having so many odds stacked against them. Galina made a full recovery and opted for sterilization so they would never accidentally conceive again. The family received so much support from family, friends, and well-wishers, both materially and otherwise. They were happy, and we continue to wish them well.
How would you react if you found out you gave birth to six premature but healthy babies? Share your thoughts in the comments.