Little Stolen Lives

The Untold Stories of the Lawson Quins
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-0-473-32494-0
Verlag: Paul Little Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 304 Seiten

The world's third surviving set of quintuplets, Deborah, Samuel, Selina, Shirlene and Lisa were New Zealand's darlings. Then their parents broke up and her mother married her killer. On the eve of their 50th birthday their full story is told for the first time, a tale about the strength of love and family and their ability not just to survive but to triumph.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Little, Paul

Leseproben

CHAPTER 2 And then there were eight NATURALLY OCCURRING QUINTUPLET BIRTHS ARE extremely rare. In 1965 they were thought to occur in somewhere between every 20-40 million births. The first quins known to have survived infancy were the Dionne quintuplets, born in Ontario Canada in 1934. Not that this would have been of much interest to Ann, her family and her medical team, who all knew she was having quadruplets. After all, they had seen the babies. Ann wanted as natural a birth as possible and refused any pain relief apart from nitrous oxide and oxygen. “Not being at all dopey and not having any anaesthetics at all I didn’t feel that I missed anything,” she said later. “When I had Leeann it was completely different and I had always felt that I missed out on a lot. But this time I didn’t care what happened as long as I knew what was going on. I wasn’t going to miss out on the big event.” The first baby to enter the world was a boy, later to be called Samuel, who appeared with the aid of forceps after just 25 minutes and weighed 1.814kg. He began to breathe immediately and although he developed jaundice there were no other complications. Next to be born was the girl who would be called Lisa, an assisted breech delivery at 10.34pm, slightly smaller than her older brother and 1.446kg. She began breathing within one and a half minutes. The third child, Deborah, had a slightly more complicated entry into the world at 10.40pm. She would prove to be the biggest of the babies, at 1.899kg, but took 10 minutes to establish normal respiration. When Shirlene, the fourth baby, was born weighing 1.87kg and began breathing within three minutes, everyone else breathed a sigh of relief that the quadruplets had all been born safely. But it was relief that turned to astonishment when a fifth baby, Selina, emerged, like a hitherto undiscovered planet suddenly observed in a solar system. The most likely reason that her existence had gone undetected was simply that she had been obscured by her siblings in the womb and, possibly, had been lying directly on top of one of the others so that their hearts were beating in perfect synchronicity and could not be distinguished. Selina was the slowest of the babies to regain her birth weight. The Lawson quintuplets would grow and prosper and go on to become only the third set of quintuplets in history to survive. It later became clear that the quins had topped and tailed in the womb, presenting vertex, breech, vertex, breech, vertex. They were born remarkably easily and apart from jaundice — not uncommon, even with single births — and cases of “sniffles” had no health problems and all regained and exceeded their birth weights in good time. The babies were placed in incubators, more as a precaution due to the unusual circumstances of their birth than because of any specific concern. Doctors were not taking any chances with their unique charges. In the midst of the activity a man wearing a surgical mask offered Ann a cup of tea. “How are you feeling, honey?” he said. “I was pretty bewildered by this time, and I thought it was just a doctor being fresh,” Ann later told a writer. Then she realised it was Sam. “Tell me, Sam,” she asked, “are they all all right?” Yes they were. She dozed off and woke to find herself alone. “Where’s my husband?” Ann asked a nurse. “Oh they’re all upstairs in the doctors’ lounge, drinking whisky,” said the nurse. Ann demanded to be taken to the party for which she had provided the occasion, but was refused. Instead she was wheeled into a private room. Before long an agitated doctor rushed into the room. “Quick, quick, Mrs Lawson! Put on your make-up and comb your hair. The photographers are coming.” It was Ann’s first hint that what had just happened was likely to attract more interest than the arrival of the average baby. For one thing, from now on, she would have to look her absolute best every time she went out because there would be cameras there to follow her every move. Sam and Ann lived in their own small two-bedroom home in Seabrook Ave, not far from the Crown Lynn factory where they had met. It was a popular street with the Lawson clan., with Sam’s mother living next door with her sons John and Robert. Another brother, Jim, lived at 11A. When the news of the birth reached New Lynn it was Joyce who heard it first. She hurried next door to find Nana Menzies, who was staying over to look after Leeann. “You’ll never believe this,” she said, laughing. “Ann’s had five children.” Five-year-old Leeann’s first reported reaction was: “I don’t want none brothers.” It was a rare negative note from the big sister who would become the babies’ champion and protector in years to come. Her tune changed once she had laid eyes on her new siblings. “They are just so tiny,” she said. “They look like my dolls. But Mummy has got lots of presents.” Many people assumed Leeann — an only child for five years — would react badly to the sudden arrival of five rivals for her parents’ attention. But she loved them from the moment she laid eyes on them. “It’s got a lot to do with how Mum handled it,” says Leeann. “She involved me with it all, although I was only five, with things like the five dolls that were given to me when they came home. That brought me into it rather than putting me off to one side.” As news of the birth spread, it created an international sensation. Quintuplets were extraordinary enough in themselves to warrant attention, but the Lawsons were also the first case of quintuplets conceived using the Gemzell treatment to survive birth. And the mid-1960s was the era of the space race, the development of computers and all the potential for solving humanity’s problems that science seemed to offer. The arrival of Samuel, Lisa, Deborah, Shirlene and Selina was evidence that science might be able to bring an end to the sorrows of infertility, although preferably not with five babies at once. For the New Zealand public and media, unaccustomed to playing host to scientific breakthroughs and being on the receiving end of international attention, it was a giddy and joyous time. A newspaper editorial was probably typical in its combination of quietly modest pleasure and over-the-top self-congratulation: Five reasons for joy All New Zealanders will share the delight and something of the pride which animate the Auckland parents of newly born quintuplets. The event is so rare as to excite the whole world: the fact that all five babies are thriving adds the crowning joy. For the women of New Zealand who did so much to endow the National Women’s Hospital there is added satisfaction. Nowhere in the world could a better place be found to deal with the medical challenge presented by a quintuplet birth. With the safe arrival of the Lawson quintuplets, the hospital enhances a fine reputation for both giving and saving life. The quintuplets themselves are born into a very special world. Growth and development in a normal environment can be hard to sustain under the spotlight of fame. Fortunately, New Zealand, above most lands, is not given to excesses of adulation, exploitation or curiosity. All will wish that the five remarkable babies may live long, happy and peaceful lives. Much attention was focused on the doctors and the treatment Ann had been given. At first, no details were released. That she had received any treatment at all remained only a rumour, as the doctors stayed tight-lipped. “Everybody is doing fine, including Mrs Lawson, the five babies and all the doctors,” said Professor Denis Bonham, deflecting curiosity with a quip. But news of the hormone treatment broke overseas and local medical authorities were obliged to address the issue, which they first did by refusing to address it. “In matters of this kind,” said Dr Algar Warren, medical superintendent at National Women’s Hospital, “the proper place to discuss clinical detail is in the scientific medical journals. This will happen in due course with the quintuplets.” But they could not keep their silence for long and were soon required to comment, if only to defend themselves from criticism, especially the suggestion that Ann had been recklessly overdosed with hormones for this prodigy to have occurred. Professor H. M. Carey at the University of NSW in Australia was not exactly being collegial when he observed from across the Tasman that it was difficult to control the dosage of gonadotrophin. Professor Bonham retorted that other mothers had received the same dosage that Ann did and had only one baby. Dr Warren put the focus and credit firmly on Ann. “Mrs Lawson’s health and attitude to the quins’ arrival has made a great difference to the fitness of her babies, I’m sure,” he said. “She’s a great girl. I couldn’t praise highly enough the way she has accepted the whole thing , right from the start. She placed herself entirely under the [care] of the doctors at the hospital. She was always a happy patient and did everything the doctors asked… She had no special exercises or diet but was up and about the ward and able to rest whenever she liked. With her happy approach it is no wonder the babies are doing so well.” The great girl came through what could have been a...