Some blessings come without bringing more tasks to the beneficiary, while in other situations, the reverse is the case. The latter is the case in Ugochukwu Duru’s circumstance, whose wife, Isioma delivered a quadruplet (two girls and two boys) at Prime Medical Consultants, Port Harcourt last week.
To him, this is not just a blessing, but an unexpected one with enormous economic challenge. “I do not know how to go about this, but it is a marvellous thing that God has done for me. I never expected it would come this way, but I still trust in Him to provide for them,” the dazed father confessed to Cityfile.
Ugochukwu and his wife, Isioma, a student of Rivers State Polytechnic, Bori, had remained doubtful about the scan results, which varied from one centre to another; one result indicated two babies, another signified one, while the third showed four, which eventually became the reality.
Apart from the huge resources needed for the up keep of the babies, beginning from the first day of their birth, a huge bill had already accumulated at the hospital for their young entrepreneur father. Because of the delicate nature of the pregnancy, the woman was admitted for five weeks before she finally put to bed.
Gabriel Ominyi, clinical director of the hospital explained the condition thus; “The pregnancy itself is more like a complication. The woman registered late, about the 22nd week, so it was late for us to tie the neck of the womb to prevent premature delivery. We had to opt for a compromise of making her stay in the hospital for a long period. At 28th weeks, she was admitted, at the 34th week, she went into labour, and with four children, you do not expect normal delivery so the babies were brought out through a caesarean section.”
“Because they were not full term babies, they were being given prophylactic (phototherapy) treatment for jaundice;” explained Justina Orgen, the matron who delivered the babies. This also means additional payment for Ugochukwu.
But even as Prime Medical Consultants continues to celebrate the history-making delivery, being the first of its kind at the hospital – a set of quadruplet since over 20 years of existence, the Durus are having mixed feelings. They are happy for the gift of the perfectly combined set and at the same anxious about their sustenance.
Prime’s clinical director however summed it up, “It is God’s work; we were only used by God in this present time. We have had many twin deliveries and a number of triplets but this is our first quadruplet, so it is remarkable since the 20 years that the hospital had been in operation.”
