Kimberly Fugate and her husband, Craig, were shocked when doctors delivered
Kelsey after her three sisters on February 8. The Fugates thought
they were having triplets, not quadruplets.
(CNN) – Kimberly and Craig Fugate were expecting Kenleigh, Kristen and Kayleigh. But Kelsey, born with her sisters on February 8, was a complete surprise.
The identical quadruplets were born via cesarean section in the Winfred L. Wiser Hospital for Women and Infants at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi.
“They had gotten the three out and they said, ‘More feet,’” the mother told CNN affiliate WAPT. “I said, ‘No!’ It was an instant shock.”
The odds of spontaneous quadruplets — conceived without fertility assistance — are 1 in 729,000, according to Dr. James Bofill, Kimberly Fugate’s physician and a professor of maternal fetal medicine at the University of Mississippi.
The odds in this case were even slimmer as the Fugate girls are identical, meaning they split from a single egg.
“Those odds are incalculable,” Bofill said in a hospital press release.
The last known set of identical quadruplets was born in Germany in January 2012. Experts estimate there are 50 to 60 sets worldwide.
You may know the Mathias quads – Grace, Emily, Mary Claire and Anna — who are in the eighth grade and appeared on the Discovery Health Channel’s “Super Quads.” And perhaps you remember a Lifetime reality show called “Four of a Kind,” which featured identical quadruplets Megan, Kendra, Sarah and Calli Durst, of Buffalo, Minnesota.