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Chances of survival? 65-year-old gets quadruplets
Quadruplets have good chances of survival
The late pregnancy of a Berlin teacher sparked heated debates in recent months. Due to the high age of the 65-year-olds and because it was a multiple pregnancy, the likelihood of complications was significantly increased. On Tuesday, the three boys and a girl were taken in a Berlin hospital with a caesarean section, after Annegret R. in the 26th gestational week had used labor. The quadruplets, according to a message from the news agency dpa good chances to survive.
The first few weeks are fraught with serious complications
Mario Rüdiger from the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus in Dresden explained that there are life-threatening complications especially in the first days after birth. "Every day more reduces the risk of death." Gerhard Jorch, head of the University Children's Hospital in Magdeburg, said that the survival rate for premature babies at this stage is more than 90 percent after the first four weeks of life. But in the first few days and weeks threaten mainly respiratory failure, circulatory failure, cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral infarction, infections, intestinal problems and kidney failure.
Multiple pregnancies are generally associated with higher risks
Multiple pregnancies are generally associated with a higher risk. According to health experts, problems such as increased water retention, especially in the legs, as well as pregnancy-related high blood pressure, varicose veins, anemia and impaired maternal abdominal organs, can occur more frequently compared to a simple pregnancy. In addition, babies are threatened during pregnancy with a shortage and finally a premature birth with ongoing health impairments such as visual and hearing damage and developmental disorders. Another problem: in an older woman, the already high thrombosis risk increases.
Irresponsible behavior of the 65-year-olds
As Matthias Beckmann, Director of the Department of Gynecology of the University Hospital Erlangen explained, however, the threat of long-term damage is far more significant than the risk of death. The medicine can save today ever younger preemies, but not ensure their healthy survival. Rüdiger is also convinced: "The four children will not all go home healthy." Especially in the lungs, bowels, eyes and brain, chronic problems threaten. Beckmann, Guideline Coordinator at the German Society for Gynecology and Obstetrics (DGGG), criticized the fact that the behavior of the 65-year-olds is irresponsible precisely against this background. "Maybe she has to take care of two handicapped children, and at age 80 she becomes a nursing case herself." He could not understand the fact that there was even a doctor who did the artificial insemination with such an old woman.
Artificial insemination in Ukraine
Rüdiger added that in-vitro fertilization has become the general trend to implant only one fertilized egg - just to avoid risky multiple pregnancies. According to the information, Annegret R. had been implanted in Ukraine from egg and sperm donated embryos in the laboratory. The Berliner is under contract with the Cologne private channel RTL, who accompanied the pregnancy for a TV documentary. Details on the health of Neeta, Dries, Bence and Fjonn gave the station initially not known. It simply said that the children were not fully developed. The now 17-fold mother and seven-time grandmother Annegret R., who has been massively accused of selfishness and irresponsibility in recent months, said according to dpa: "I do not talk to other people in their lives, and I expect that mine is just as accepted. As a reason for her pregnancy, she stated that her ten-year-old daughter wanted a sibling. : Sonja Mahr