Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, the first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet.
Eight Wonders of the World: 27-year old Nigerian, Nkem Chukwu, gives birth to Octuplets in Houston
By Chido Nwangwu. Follow on Twitter @Chido247
Special & Exclusive to USAfricaonline.com
USAfrica The Newspaper 12/21/1998
Ike and his lovely wife, Nkem Chukwu, came to the United States, like many immigrants, in search of the proverbial golden fleece. The amiable but overwhelmed Chukwus also came this far from their native and enterprise-driven Igbo culture of the Eastern part of Nigeria not only to get a better education. Also, they sojourned to expand their access to the multitude of opportunities in the economic landscape of “God’s own country.”
On that very beautiful day of 8:58 am on December 20, 1998, at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, the young, hard-working couple catapulted their personalities from ordinary immigrants to globally-famous parents of octuplets. They made history on that day – with the guiding hands and expertise of 28 medical support personnel, including eight physicians.
Within 100 minutes, their names beamed all over the world’s major newswires; knocked the Clinton-Republican tug-of-war off the lead of many broadcast and newspapers; if only for a day or two before the scandalous and hateful, partisan madness resumes.
Somehow, some reporters from different parts of the United States who had called my office managed to ferret out my home number that Sunday afternoon and evening. Some of them found out that I did not come from Nigeria but from the same ethnic group as the parents of the Chukwu octuplets.
Another lesson, for me, the world is getting smaller.
The birth of the 8 wonders of the world was the closest poster of pan-human renewal and shared joy; towering above the noise and muck from Washington DC on politics which had drowned out most other important stories. The birth of octuplets had all the engaging intimations and symbolisms of a Christmas blessing — just less than a week to the day most of mankind celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Immediately, the octuplets and their parents became global household names competing and instantly made the chroniclers of the Guinness Book of Records to take note! Records? Yes; the fact is they have the rare blessing (and challenge) of being the proud parents of the world’s only known, surviving set of octuplets (8 children). Mrs. Chukwu and her husband, Ike, a respiratory therapist. They had been trying to have children for some time until they had quite a bundle of blessing.
The birth of the Chukwu octuplets recalled for many the McCaughey septuplets (seven). They are all alive and have received hefty financial and operational support from major U.S corporations and individuals. They were born nine weeks premature to Bobbi and Kenny McCaughey of Carlisle, Iowa on November 19, 1997.
Like many youths, the dream to have a family has been an eager, fertile wish for them. Nkem had taken a significant number of fertility drugs, as a way to enhance her quest to have a baby for her husband. But it was not just going to be just one baby –even after her unfortunate miscarriage some months earlier.
The 27-year-old Nkem (whose abbreviated Igbo name means ‘mine’) delivered five girls and two boys by Caesarean section at almost 9 a.m. Reasonably, her physician Dr. Patti Savrick described her as “a remarkable woman. She’s very serene….” The eighth child, a girl, was delivered, earlier, naturally on December 8.
In accordance with their ethnic mores and cultural roots, significant and rare events such as these historic births will be reflected in the names the Chukwus will give their new bundles of joy. Such names will offer a summary of a sort, an eloquent mane-identity for the magnificent blessings of the births. In a sense, it will mirror testimony to their hopes, appreciation of divine grace.
Although Mrs Chukwu took fertilization drugs, the centrality of God in Igbo cosmology and beliefs on the destiny of the kids will lead us to expect that the Chukwu family will have their kids carry names with the God-centric names with prefixes and suffixes ‘Chi’ or ‘Chukwu’ – both mean God. For example, ‘Chiemeka or ‘Chukwuemeka’ for any of the boys mean “God has done great things for us”
A source very close to the family informed me “Ike and Nkem have decided to give those wonderful kids meaningful names to capture their delight and feelings.”Dr Savrick, a pediatrician at Texas Children’s Hospital, said “She’s… a very spiritual woman.” He also commended her serenity and endurance all through the process.
Nuela Obuekwe, a mother and professional educator with over 25 years of experience in Nigeria who is also from the same culture as the Chukwus said the births hold an additional symbolism. She told USAfricaonline.com and USAfrica The Newspaper that “their births mean great things for all of us. As we are coming to celebrate Christmas and the beginning of a new millennium, this also signifies that even more great things are in the wings for our community and our people.”
Regarding the health of the babies who weighed between 11 ounces and 1 pound, 11 ounces at birth, the Texas Children’s Hospital indicated to USAfricaonline.com late on Sunday, December 20 that they were being monitored “very carefully on a minute-to-minute watch” in the TCH’s neonatal intensive care unit. The hospital is reputed as one of the top three leading hospitals in child care in the world.
According to Leonard Weisman, the hospital’s chief of neonatology service “It’s really too early to say (what the prognosis is) … they are all critically ill. Several have shown some improvement and several haven’t.”
Seven of the octuplets are on ventilators.
Despite the fact they were born and classified separately at “critical condition”, there seems some hope in the mind and outstanding work said to have been done by Savrick and his colleagues. He said, “They’re doing as well as could be expected.”
On his part, Weisman cited statistically information to argue that the Chukwu babies had an 85 percent chance of survival and a 75 percent to 80 percent chance of developing normally. Their hospital stay, according to Weisman, is expected to last at least two months and will cost about $250,000 each. Note that the cost is for EACH!
The issue of cost and maintenance of the kids and their parents form the critical challenge which the Chukwus, their friends and well-wishers will have to face, at least based on a friendly inquiry into their income by USAfrica Media Networks indicate their capacity to handle most of the expenses are “very constrained and limited.” A friend of Ike’s said “they are good folks and are largely struggling and striving as any other average American/immigrant who is slightly below the typical middle class category.”
The octuplets’ mother had to undergo emergency surgery in the night of the delivery to stop internal bleeding. She has since returned to “a stable condition”- according to her obstetrician and specialist on high-risk births, Dr. Brian Kirshon. “She did have some bleeding and did require some transfusions. She was taken back to the operating room and she is now stable and the bleeding is under control.” Kirshon added the haemorrhaging was caused by the medication Mrs. Chukwu took to prolong her pregnancy. She miscarried a set of triplets at 21 weeks of pregnancy earlier this year.
Savrick confirmed the first baby, now 13 days old, was breathing without a ventilator and doing “remarkably well.” “The other babies still have that rocky first week to two weeks in front of them … the first week or so we’re most concerned with lung problems,” she said.
When the issue of the safety of the mother and of the babies arose, a suggestion regarding aborting one or two fetuses arose (in order to increase the chances of their survival), Mrs. Chukwu turned it down. “Mom has very strong religious beliefs and that was not something she would entertain,” said Kirshon. The physician said their team was concerned one of the fetuses was not getting enough blood. They though about inducing the birth when Mrs. Chukwu went into labor on her own that Sunday. In Kirshon’s words, “nature intervened and bailed us out.”
Ike Chukwu, a respiratory therapist, was not present when the babies were born, but has since visited his wife and babies. Kirshon added that “I saw Dad a little while ago and he’s very excited about the pregnancy.”
One man who knows what is like to have multiple babies with very little money is Kenny McCaughey. While he said on the same Sunday the kids were born that “(we) just hope for the best for them”, the babies need more than hopes. They need our helping hands and, cutting to the quick of the matter, money and kids stuff!
Are we going to rise as Africans and Americans to provide sheltering hands for those 8 wonders of the world? Can we make a fundamental difference in their lives or are we going to be too busy to care? It’s all our choice. Remember the kids.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!
