Farmer gives birth to quintuplets

Saltpond (Central Region), 15 March '99 -

A 33-year-old mother of five, Agatha Sam, gave birth to a set of quintuplets, all girls, at the Saltpond District Hospital on Thursday. A Principal Nursing Officer of the hospital, Ms Hannah Hagan, said the first two of the babies, who shared a placenta, died in the vehicle conveying the mother to the hospital. She said the three surviving babies, which were delivered at the hospital, have been sent to the Central Regional Hospital at Cape Coast for incubator treatment. Madam Agatha, a peasant farmer from Mpese-Duadze- Bentsigua, near Abura Dunkwa in the Central Region who is in good health, told GRi that she would not have any more children. The husband, Mr Kodjo Essel, also a 33-year-old peasant farmer, appealed to philanthropic organisations and individuals to come to their aid in caring for the children "at this critical stage of our lives".