4 of 6 Frustaci Babies Improve

Four of the six surviving Frustaci septuplets were doing better today, one of them “significantly” so, while the condition of the other two was unchanged, the babies’ doctor said. All of the two-day-old babies officially remain in critical condition, with the smallest, nicknamed “the Peanut,” still the sickest, said Dr. Carrie Worcester, director of Childrens Hospital of Orange County’s neonatal intensive care unit.

The firstborn, a girl still known only as Baby A, showed the most rapid improvement, and the oxygen content in her respirator tube has been reduced, Worcester said. Four boys and three girls were delivered at neighboring St. Joseph Hospital by Patti Frustaci, a 30-year-old Riverside schoolteacher, Tuesday morning. The last baby, a girl, was stillborn. Frustaci and her husband, Samuel, are expected to name the babies either today or tomorrow, a St. Joseph official said.