A 42-year-old Mississippi woman expecting triplets got the shock of her life when she was rushed to the hospital and found out she was actually delivering quadruplets.

Mom and the four bouncing baby girls were all doing well Monday, according to a spokeswoman for the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Dad? He wasn’t there. He was working, something he’ll probably be doing a lot of in the weeks, months and years ahead.

PHOTOS: A look at the Kim Fugate and her quadruplets


Here’s what happened, according to medical center spokeswoman Jen Hospodor, who spoke with The Times:

Kim Fugate’s pregnancy was completely natural: “No IVF, no fertility drugs, nothing.” So Fugate and her husband were shocked enough to learn they were expecting triplets. The due date was May 2.

But Kim was rushed to the hospital this month when she went into an early labor. On Feb. 8, she delivered three babies: Kenleigh, Kristen and Kayleigh, who all weighed just over 2 pounds.

And that’s when Kim heard the doctor say, “There are more feet.”


The “hider” was Kelsey, who weighed 2 pounds, 6 ounces.

The university center said the odds of spontaneous quadruplets are 1 in 729,000. “But in the Fugates’ case, the odds are even smaller because their girls split from a single egg, meaning the siblings are identical,” the statement said.

One expert put those odds at 1 in 13 million.

The hospital spokeswoman said Kim was a U.S. postal employee at the time of her pregnancy and went on leave as her condition progressed. It is unclear whether she will go back to work. Dad is in construction, Hospodor said. The couple have a 10-year-old daughter, Katelyn.


The Clarion Ledger said it spoke to Kim’s physician, James Bofill, who said that discovering a fourth baby during the delivery was a first in his 27-year career. “I was very embarrassed, obviously,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. A call to Bofill was not returned by the time this story was posted.

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