Over the course of a 32-hour stretch, doctors at one Bay Area hospital delivered four sets of twins — a rare occurrence that hospital staff can't recall ever happening in recent history.
The "multiple twin marathon" at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford in Palo Alto began at 8:15 a.m. on June 29 and ended at 4:08 p.m. the following day, according to Stanford Children's Health. Three sets of twins were born on June 29, with the fourth and final entering the world on June 30.
Hospital staff believe this was the largest number of twins the hospital has ever cared for at one time.
"I cannot recall so many twin births within that short of a time frame," Lou Filoteo, a nurse manager who has worked at the hospital for 19 years, said.
The odds of having twins are 1 in 30, according to Stanford Children's Health. The odds of having four sets of twins in a row like this are roughly 1 in 1,000,000.
Three of the sets of twins are at home, Stanford Children's Health said. The fourth set, identical sisters Hadley and Olivia Sacher, remain at the hospital in the intermediate care unit, but they are doing well. When they were born, they weighed 4 pounds, 7 ounces and 3 pounds, 9 ounces.
