Four of quintuplets die hours after birth at Faridpur hospital

A rare quintuplet birth at Faridpur Medical College Hospital ended in tragedy after four of the five newborns died due to complications from extreme prematurity and critically low birth weight.

The babies—three boys and two girls—were delivered naturally within 30 minutes on Thursday (July 2).

Doctors said each infant weighed between 700 and 800 grams, placing them in the extremely low birth weight (ELBW) category and requiring intensive neonatal care.

Hospital officials said the mother, Chandni Begum (22), was admitted in the afternoon and gave birth without a caesarean section. Although all five babies were born alive, four died overnight, leaving only one baby boy alive and under treatment.

The babies' father, Mahamudul Hasan Dollar, 30, is a resident of Boro Kajuli village under Kodalia-Shahidnagar Union in Nagarkanda Upazila of Faridpur. The couple married about a year and a half ago, and medical examinations later confirmed that Chandni was carrying five babies.

Senior nurse Minati Sarkar of the hospital's labour ward said the mother was admitted at 4:10pm, and the first baby was delivered at 5:20pm, with the remaining four born over the next 30 minutes.

Senior staff nurse Riya Biswas said four of the five newborns died at different times overnight, with the last death occurring in the early hours of Friday. One baby boy survived and is currently under medical care.

Dr. Pritiraj Pal Chowdhury, the duty intern at the Neonatal and Paediatric Ward, said all five babies were alive in mother's womb when they were brought to the hospital.

However, each weighed only 700 to 800 grams, he said, classifying them as extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants.

Such premature babies require advanced neonatal intensive care, he said.

He added that the family had been advised to transfer the newborns to a specialised neonatal facility in Dhaka because the hospital lacked adequate NICU support. However, the transfer did not take place.