By MIRANDA LA ROSE Friday, March 15 2013

NINE DAYS after he was the firstborn of sextuplets delivered by Caesarian section at the Mt Hope Women’s Hospital, a baby boy remains on a ventilator but continues to improve while his five siblings continue to gain weight.

The baby boy, who had been listed as critically ill at one stage, “continues to improve slowly but surely”, a relative told Newsday yesterday. The relative added the sextuplets’ parents Petra Lee Foon and Kieron Cummings, are very optimistic about their first son’s complete recovery given the fact he had the highest birth weight among the six.

At the time of their delivery, the firstborn boy was followed by a girl, a boy, two girls and a boy. It was reported there were either triplets or twins among the six babies, the first sextuplets born in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean. They were born on March 4.

Four placentas were reportedly removed from the uterus, leading to a pronouncement that among the sextuplets there was a set of triplets.

All of the babies continue to gain weight as they are also fed breast milk expressed by their mother. At the moment, the names of the babies are anyone’s guess. Asked whether their names will begin with “K” as in their father’s name and “P” as their mother’s, the relative laughed and said, “just wait and you’ll have some surprises.”

Meanwhile, efforts to get any information out of the Women’s Hospital yesterday were unsuccessful. Staff members told Newsday a memo from the Office of the Chief Executive Officer of the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) was issued reminding them that providing any information to the media or members of the public on patients is a “breach of transactional” arrangements, as an employee of the hospital.

Newsday was referred to the Corporate Communications Unit of the NCRHA. Several calls were made to the two extensions provided, but there was no response.