Five sextuplets 'stable' after premature birth

A woman has given birth to sextuplets by Caesarean section but one of the babies has already died, hospital officials said yesterday.

A woman has given birth to sextuplets by Caesarean section but one of the babies has already died, hospital officials said yesterday.

The babies were born 12 weeks prematurely at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle last Thursday. The smallest child, who weighed 340 grams (12oz), died three days later from complications.

Five of the six babies, two boys and three girls, were in a stable condition in the neonatal intensive care unit yesterday. The heaviest weighed about 1kg (2.2lb) at birth. The emergency Caesarean birth was performed in five minutes by a team of 14 doctors and nurses led by Professor Stephen Robson.

The mother was reported to be from Libya and had arrived in Britain a few weeks ago with her husband, a post-graduate student. The hospital said it had not been decided who would be responsible for the estimated £500,000 bill for the babies' expected three-month stay.