4 Girls, Boy 1st ‘Test-Tube’ Quints in U.S.

DETROIT —  A Michigan woman gave birth to four girls and a boy in what a hospital said today was the first delivery of “test-tube” quintuplets in the United States.

The quintuplets, delivered by Caesarean section at Beaumont Hospital in suburban Royal Oak late Monday, ranged in weight from 1 pound, 14 1/2 ounces, to 3 pounds, 2 1/2 ounces, and were “in good shape,” spokeswoman Deb Mero said.

The births were about a month premature, she said.

The parents were identified only as a married couple from Clarkston, Mich., who were accepted into Beaumont’s 4-year-old in-vitro fertilization (IVF) program last year.

“These are the first quints born from IVF in the nation,” said Mero, who said her information came from Medical Research International, a Boston-based monitoring agency.

“The odds of having quintuplets is one in 50 million and this is only the 15th living set of quints,” Mero said.

In March, 1986, five boys believed to be the world’s first test-tube quintuplets were born in London.

Among 50 in-vitro fertilization clinics in the United States, Mero said, there were three reported births of test-tube quadruplets but none of quintuplets.

Dr. Len Hutton, who delivered the babies, said they were in stable condition. “We’re cautiously optimistic,” he said.