Four-day-old quadruplet boy passes away in hospital

JAKARTA (JP): One of the newly-born quadruplets born on Tuesday at the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital died yesterday.

The cause of the baby boy's death has not yet been disclosed. Qualified personnel at the hospital in Central Jakarta were not available for comment yesterday morning.

The baby's death, however, was confirmed in the late afternoon by a doctor in the children's intensive care unit.

When interviewed by The Jakarta Post yesterday morning, the buoyant Irmayanti, mother of the quadruplets, had not yet been informed about her baby's death.

Irmayanti said that soon after she gave birth to her quadruplets she understood the bizarre dream she had about four months ago.

Irmayanti said that she dreamed about being requested to take good care of four ducks given to her by an unidentified person.

"For some reason I interpreted the person to be my husband," said Irmayanti bashfully.

It was only a week before delivery that she discovered she was carrying four babies.

Her midwife told her that her unborn child might be positioned upside down. On April 18 she was brought to the hospital for an ultrasound and discovered that she was carrying four fetuses.

After having contractions early on Tuesday morning, Irmayanti was then set to undergo a cesarean section by 8 a.m.

The quadruplets were encapsulated in two placentas, each holding a boy and a girl. Girls began and ended the sequence of birth. Each baby weighed an average of 1,5 kilograms at birth.

No names were previously chosen by the couple who expected a girl. Now, they will have to search for names for both sexes.

Irmayanti was unable to earnestly articulate her disbelief of the births. She only considers what happened to her family an act of God. Her eldest son is now five years old.

Irmayanti used to work at a factory, earning Rp 200,000 a month. As of yesterday, she could not quite imagine how the new change will affect her family's life.

Irmayanti and her babies have received wide media attention as quadruplets are rare.

"I'm embarrassed because my friends have been teasing me for appearing on newspaper and television," the bright-eyed mother said. (14)