Evening star., 1934-08-30
DESCRIBES BIRTH
OF QU|NTUPLETS
County Doctor Declares
Scene Was "UnreaI and
Dream-Iike."
BY the Associated Press.

ICObCIndy AAeAN AO0 AAASS
story of the birth and infancy OF
uuintuplets, dramatic but simple &C
count by the country doctor who was
both obstetrician and parish priest to
the five daughters of Mrs. Elzire
Dionne on their birth morn last
May %.
DR.. Allan Roy Dafoe of Callander,
/ Ontario. wrote his report for this
weeks issue of the journal OF the
American Medical Association.
Unreal and dreamlike," DR.. Dafoe
described the scene to which he was
called at am.
IT arrived" the physician related,
"to find the home in confusion. no
preparation made for confinement eX-
cept a teakettle boiling on the stove.
Two babies had already been born"
| The father was absent, but two
neighbor women were rustling up
wrappings for the babies and building
up the fire DIR. Dafoe took charge OF
the last three arrivals, the smaller
ones. AS for the order of precedence,
he said, Marie, Emelie, Cecile. Annette
| and Yvonne will have to agree among
themselves, for in the exigency no one
1
born and "the exact order OF birth
sequence is not known" DR.. Datoe
stated.
First in Medical History.
| DR.. Morris Fishbein, editor OF the
medical journal, commenting editori-
ally, said the birth of the Dionne
uuintuplets was notable as apparently
1 Id, a.. hi ,f
medicine. There had been perhaps
80 to 35 instances of quintuplets, but
never previously have they reached
the age of two months. The editor
complimented DR.. Dafoe:
"Callander, Ontario, Is far from
being a metropolitan community. Its
population is around 600 people and
DR.. Dafoe is the only doctor there.
Nevertheless, to him there came an
extraordinary opportunity. With the
traditions of medicine and an excel
lent sense of the ethical requirements
of the situation, he met the occasion.
His conduct Of the case and his rela-
tions to the public in connection with
| it have been exemplary.
"As one gaZes on the picture OF the
midwife and reads the records of the
conditions under which these children
were born and developed, one realizes
to some extent also how futile is much
of the superscientific and pseudo
scientific discussion that has been
published in recent years on the prob
lens of maternal mortality and infant
care. There are many lessons for
scientific medicine in this incident"
The physician had attended Mrs.
Dionne at the birth of three of her
five previous children, and had been
watching her condition just 16 days
before the quintuplets made their
debut, but had not suspected null
| tiple births, he said A few days be-
| fore their birth she had complained
of blurred vision and nausea, and
| finding her in serious condition
with blood pressure above 200, DR..
Dafoe had ordered her to bed on
fluid diet.
| After delivering the quintulets he
was called upon for heroic measures
to save the mothers life.
"All of the babies" he related,
'were crying fairly vigorously for
their size. I didn't see how all of
the babies could possibly live, so I
were then wrapped in the only
be remnants of cotton sheeting and
old napkins, and then laid on the
corner of the bed and covered with
a heated blanket"
Then his attention was centered
on Mrs. Dionne, the 25-year-old
mother.
| "She suddenly went into a condi-
, ton of shock" said DR.. Dafoe. 1.-The
patient was cold, and the radial pulse
had disappeared. Solutions of
| pituitary and ergot were given. In
short time the pulse picked up a
little, but was still fast and weak.
Slight color appeared in her face"
Hurried Away for Priest.
DR.. Dafoe still feared she would
not live.
| I'm spite of more pituitary and er-
got, she presented the appearance Of
a dying woman. The husband was
still missing, and it was my duty to
get the priest, as no one else was
available with a car. Reluctantly
leaving the midwife, I hurried away
to bring the priest, distance of two
and a half miles.
ION returning found the mothers
condition improving. TWO hours
later she was definitely out Of dam
| ger"
Then the busy doctor had more
l for 11n hoh a.
heated in the oven, wrapped around
the babies and changed often. Some
one brought butchers meat basket.
For "a hours the quints were fed
nothing but a few drops of warm
water from an eye dropper every two
hours. Then "a few drops of 7-20
mixture with corn sirup, together with
from one to two drops of rum" A
meager supply of mothers milk was
obtained around the neighborhood
and added to the infants beverage.
When four days had passed, an
ample supply of mothers milk began
coming regularly from DR.. Herman N.
Bundesen of the Chicago Health De-
partment and full-strength mothers
| milk has been used regularly since,
some from Toronto and Montreal.
Given Tomato Juice.
Latterly, the babes having "cele-
brated" their third month of life on
August %, bit of tomato juice has
been added to the dfet-besides the
oxygen, given regularly at first and
later on emergencies when the in
fants seemed sinking.
DR.. Dafoe said there were no ac-
curate scales handy at the time of
birth, but on the second day the COM
bined weight was 13 pounds 6 ounces.
The combined weight August 27 was
20 pounds 81 ounces.
| An incubator from Chicago arrived
on the third day and eventually
there were enough to go around. The
temperature was kept between 81 and
90, then lowered to "a. Sponges
soaked in hot water provided humidity,
and when instruments were available
the humidity was kept between SO
and 55 degrees.
GFYTl,o fref u,anL - nv nafna rono1lnd