The fertility doctor warned Chad and Amy Kempel they could end up with multiple babies, even triplets, as the couple set out this year to have a third and final child.
A month into their pregnancy, as the ultrasound technician counted out — Baby A, Baby B, Baby C, Baby D and Baby E — Amy burst into tears. She is carrying quintuplets, an extremely rare and high-risk pregnancy with grim chances that all five babies will survive. Just 24 sets of quintuplets were born in the entire United States in 2015.
Now, nearly 21 weeks pregnant, instead of decorating a nursery, the couple is battling with Kaiser Permanente to send them to an out-of-network Arizona doctor who specializes in high-risk multiple pregnancies, setting off an ethical and financial debate over how far a healthcare provider should go to accommodate families facing extraordinary medical circumstances.
“Every minute of the day feels like a fight,” Amy, 34, said during an interview at the family’s house in this small community of Mountain House, a few miles northwest of Tracy.
Having already lost premature twins in their first pregnancy, the Kempels are desperate to keep their five babies from being born too early.
Kaiser insists it “has the necessary experience and resources to provide high quality care” for the Kempels — before and after birth.
“We understand that this is both a joyful and a stressful time for Ms. Kempel and her family,” said Colleen McKeown, senior vice president and area manager at Kaiser Walnut Creek, the neonatal intensive care unit where the Kempels would deliver their babies. “Our priority is the health and well-being of Ms. Kempel and her babies, and we are committed to continuing to work closely with her to provide the care and support they need.”
Their situation is not entirely unprecedented. The doctor for the famous Octomom Nadya Suleman, another Kaiser patient, also reached out to the same Arizona doctor, John Elliott, he said during a phone interview. She was 31 weeks pregnant when she successfully delivered her eight babies in 2009 at Kaiser’s Bellflower hospital in Southern California.
But the Kempels say they are still worried the Walnut Creek hospital doesn’t have the experience to deliver quintuplets.
The couple has appealed to California’s Department of Managed Health Care. They’ve written to Gov. Jerry Brown. They’ve reached out to local lawmakers and even President Donald Trump. Sometimes they get a canned response, sometimes no response at all.
Now, the Kempels are terrified that their worst nightmare is about to come true all over again.
In 2013, Amy’s first pregnancy ended tragically when the couple lost beloved twins Marshall and Spencer, who died hours after birth. She was 22 weeks along — nearly what she is today. They had already been buying clothes and toys and Chad had built the cribs. Amy’s mom had sent out baby shower invitations, and gifts had begun flowing in. Then, the crushing loss.
But the Kempels were relieved and overjoyed in the years to come. Their daughters Savannah, now 3, and Avery, 17 months, were born full-term and healthy using the same fertility treatment they tried during their first pregnancy: intrauterine insemination, where sperm are inserted into a woman’s uterus near her eggs.
Amy has what’s known as an incompetent cervix, which means it’s likely to open too soon and lead to premature labor. That’s what happened with the twins, with devastating consequences.
That’s why Amy can’t shake the thought: “We’re destined for another funeral.”
While a typical pregnancy lasts about 40 weeks, the average gestation for quintuplets is only 27 weeks, according to Elliott, the Phoenix-area perinatal specialist — and that’s for women without complications like Amy’s.
