Chicago Hospital Delivers 17 Pairs Of Twins In One Week
By Mae Rice in News on Apr 12, 2016 7:19PM
In the first week of April, Advocate Children's Hospital in Oak Lawn delivered 17 pairs of twins. Dr. Brett Galley, a neonatologist in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, told ABC News that this is a stunning figure—typically, the hospital delivers 10 pairs of twins per month.
"[I]t's been like Noah's Ark around here — the babies are coming in twos," Galley told the Tribune.
The influx of twins has put the hospital close to its maximum, USA Today reported. They have capacity for 57 newborns, and as of April 8, they had 45.
Hospital employees are going to great pains not to confuse the twins, who look alike, share a last name and share a birth date. "We have a lot of fail safes to make sure we don't confuse the twins," Galley told the Tribune. "We treat each baby as an individual."
It's common for babies, especially twins, to be born prematurely; Galley told the Tribune that the current wave of twins at the hospital are no exception. They were born between 26 and 36 weeks into their mothers' pregnancies, he said.
To celebrate the tremendous number of babies, the hospital posted a Facebook album titled "Twins galore!", last updated on Friday.
One photo in the album reveals that there are twin doctors on the staff at Advocate Children's Hospital—Dr. Richard Kampanatkosol, a neonatologist, and Dr. Ronald Kampanatkosol, a pediatric critical care physician.