Ireland’s only quintuplets returned to the neonatal ward in Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital to celebrate their 18th birthday.
The birth of the ‘Famous Five’ Conor, Cian, Rory, Amy and Dearbhail Cassidy in 2001 became national news, and saw them feature as tiny guests on The Late Late Show.
Yesterday, they revisited the hospital and met the midwives and doctors who helped with their high-risk delivery. They were presented with a birthday cake and balloons to mark the occasion.
The five siblings were born at just over 25 week’s gestation in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and weighed between 1lb 6oz to 1lb 11oz at birth.
“It was stressful but every day you came in and your babies were there and it gave you the strength to keep going,” mother Veronica Cassidy said.
“We didn’t think 18 years ago that we would see this day but we have,” she told RTE’s Morning Ireland.
At her first scan, Veronica was told she was carrying just one child. At the following scan consultants told her it could be twins or perhaps triplets. Then at 11 weeks they confirmed it was quintuplets.
Ms. Edna Woolhead was one if the members of staff working the night the siblings were born and recalled the calm in the delivery room.
“The one memory I have of it all was that it was very calm. We had been ready for the babies. We were ready for them,” she said.
Professor Fergal Malone, Master of the Rotunda Hospital said: “Any baby to survive in a quintuplet pregnancy is a success but for all five to survive and survive in a healthy manner is extremely unusual.”
Multiple births in Ireland have increased over the past 10 years. There is a 95pc survival rate for twins, 70pc for triplets and 50pc for quadruplets
“Multiple births have become increasingly common in the last 10 of years, with about three in every 1,000 pregnancies being a twin, triplet or higher order multiple gestation,” Professor Fergal Malone, Master of the Rotunda Hospital said.
“There has been a 30pc increase in the number of successful twin births in the last two decades, which is due to wider availability of assisted reproductive technologies (such as IVF) and older maternal ages at conception.
However, the number of triplet, quadruplet and quintuplet births has halved, due to more effective controls on assisted reproductive technologies.
“With multiple births, there is a 95% survival rate for twins, 70% for triplets and 50% for quadruplets. It is clear however that quintuplets are very rare today, with the Cassidy quintuplets being the only set in Ireland, and the healthy survival rate of all five babies in a quintuplet pregnancy is quite exceptional.”
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