Article on For Care, For Cure, For Kids Blog, by Megan Alpers
The Wang family is truly one in a million.
Born in October 2010, quadruplets Audrey, Emma, Isabelle, and Natalie Wang entered the world with the help of our team at the Charles B. and Ann L. Johnson Center for Pregnancy and Newborn Services at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. When the girls’ parents, Samantha and Wayne, first learned they would be having quadruplets—an extremely rare occurrence in naturally conceived births—they were referred to the Johnson Center’s Perinatal Diagnostic Center and the Center for Fetal and Maternal Health to ensure that Samantha and the babies were safe and ready for the complex birth.
When it came time for the girls’ delivery, mom and babies were supported by a multi-disciplinary team of 20 members. Born three months premature, the girls weighed less than two pounds each and were immediately brought to the neonatal intensive care unit, where they received specialized care until they were strong enough to head home with their parents.
Today the family lives in Taiwan and the girls are happy and very active.
“The girls are doing well,” says Wayne. “They are in pre-school and all four are in good health.”
Two of the girls, Audrey and Isabelle, were diagnosed with retinopathy of prematurity, a condition that primarily affects the eyesight of babies born before 31 weeks gestation and weighing less than 2.75 pounds. The family has worked closely with their local doctors to outfit the girls with glasses and track their progress.
And as the quadruplets prepare for their fifth birthday party in October, the family has a very bright outlook on the future, thanks to the great start they had at our hospital.
This article first appeared in the Fall 2015 issue of the Children’s Fund Update.
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