The medical team that made history by delivering quins at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital, in Pretoria, nearly two weeks ago is devastated by the death of two of the babies last week.
Born to a woman known only as Mrs Mapokgole, a 31-year-old from Tembisa, in Ekurhuleni, on the East Rand, the four girls and a boy were delivered at 30 weeks, weighing from 920g to 1.05kg.
"Unfortunately, the two [girls died] ... I think it was always one of the dangers of having been born at 30 weeks [instead of 40]," hospital chief executive Ernest Kenoshi said yesterday.
The two girls died on Tuesday. Kenoshi said the babies' chances of survival had been slight because their weight was so low.
He said babies born under 1kg were always in danger.
The three surviving babies, who are still in isolation, were doing "fairly well" but will be out of danger only if they survive for another two weeks.
"Their organs are not yet properly developed and they cannot make it on their own, that is why they are in a specialised neonatal ward and are [being kept] in an artificial womb. They will remain in hospital for at least two or three months - until they have gained enough weight."
Kenoshi said the remaining babies were being given round-the-clock high care and were being monitored by a team of specialist doctors and nurses led by neonatal specialist Lizel Loyt. She led the team that delivered the babies on June 19.
"We are not God but every day they survive gives us hope and makes us confident," said Kenoshi.
The babies are believed to be the third set of quins to be born in South Africa. The first were born in the 1960s, in East London, and the second in 1980, in Kempton Park.
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