A sore throat took a United States woman to the doctor, and she came out to hear that she was carrying quadruplets. The shock came on April Fool’s Day, and her first reaction was that it was all some kind of April Fool joke. Little did she know it was no joke.
Katelyn Yates, a 20-year-old nursing assistant from Illinois, went to the emergency room for throat inflammation. Doctors suggested an X-ray, but a pregnancy test was required first due to safety protocols around radiation exposure. To her astonishment, the test was positive, and her hCG levels were “off the charts,” revealing she was carrying four babies. HCG is a hormone produced during pregnancy.
“I was completely in shock,” Yates told TODAY, recalling the moment. At the time, she and her now-fiancé, Julian Bueker, 21, had been dating for just six months. Though the news was a shocker to her, Bueker’s excitement soothed her nerves. “He was so excited,” she said.
It also didn’t help that the pregnancy was complicated. Yates went into her third trimester with preeclampsia, which is a condition inducing high blood pressure, among other liver and kidney complications. “I couldn’t breathe on my own,” she said.
The babies were delivered through C-section at 28 weeks. On October 17, Elizabeth Taylor, Max Ashton, Elliot Ryker, and Zya Grace were born at HSHS St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, Illinois. Max and Elliot are identical twins.
According to Yates, Elizabeth is the smallest at 1 pound 2 ounces while her brother Max, the largest, was at 2 pounds 6 ounces. Despite being born way too soon, all four babies have been doing an amazingly great job.
“They’re doing phenomenal. They are gaining weight and growing. Elizabeth is about six grams away from reaching 2 pounds,” Yates explained.
Spontaneous quadruplets, according to Dr. Meghana Limaye, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, are “extremely rare.” Yates has also started a fundraiser through Venmo to support her growing family.
