Triplets born at NUMC under ‘remarkable’ circumstances

Maria Escobar, 32 and Jose Hernan, 33, of Hicksville, watched their family grow three sizes larger at the Nassau University Medical Center on Jan. 26.

Their newborn triplets Joanna, Alison and Steven were delivered by cesarean section 36 weeks into Escobar’s pregnancy, which doctors at NUMC called “remarkable” as most triplet deliveries occur roughly four weeks earlier than that.

Doctor Victor Polliti, the president and CEO of NUMC, said that Escobar’s situation required intensive medical attention from his staff. “Without this team effort we wouldn’t have such a successful outcome,” he added.

Four months into Escobar’s pregnancy, the babies pushed against her cervix and it dilated. She had to be rushed to NUMC and undergo a rare surgery called a rescue cerclage.

“You’re basically playing around in an area where you have a water-filled balloon and you’re using a needle to sew up the skin around it,” explained Doctor Peter Hong, who performed the operation.

According to Hong, the procedure has a 50 percent success rate— meaning that half of the time it results in the termination of the pregnancy. However, Hong has successfully performed five of these operations in the past year and has performed 80 throughout his career.

Triplets account for only 103 of every 100,000 births nationwide, with approximately 4,000 trios born per year. Furthermore, the number of naturally-born triplets is declining as many parents rely on fertility drugs for such births, according to Politi.