VANCOUVER — One of the sextuplets born in Vancouver just over a week ago died late last week, sources confirm.
Spokesman Peter Cech with B.C. Women’s Hospital refused to confirm or deny the report, saying he hadn’t been given any instruction from the parents about releasing a statement.
One of the sources said the baby who died was a boy.
The hospital held a news conference last Monday after reports leaked out that Canada’s first set of sextuplets had been born.
Officials said then that the parents, who are Jehovah’s Witnesses, wished to remain anonymous.
The parents allowed authorities to say only that the babies weighed less than two pounds each, about the size of an outstretched hand.
The six babies were born at 25 weeks, just over the half-way mark of an average 40-week pregnancy.
With such an early delivery, such babies are considered on the borderline of viability because all of their organs are premature.
Typically, such babies have underdeveloped lungs that require artificial ventilation, problems with eating and underdeveloped immune systems that make them more vulnerable to infection.
It also means they could expect to be in hospital for about 100 days, doctors said last week.
Despite such challenges, such babies have about an 80 per cent chance of survival.