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Septuplets heartache: the Frustaci story

trio

Family ordeal begins after 7 births in 1985

In this story:

November 20, 1997
Web posted at: 2:46 p.m. EST (1946 GMT)

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Before the seven McCaugheys -- the septuplets born on Wednesday -- there were the seven Frustacis.

In 1985, Patti Frustaci was the first woman in the United States to give birth to septuplets. But unlike the McCaugheys of Iowa, the Frustacis of California were not as lucky.

Only three of infants survived. And even after that heartbreak, what began as the hope for a large family quickly became an ordeal of illness, money and media attention.

family

The Frustaci septuplets -- four boys and three girls -- were born by Cesarean section 12 weeks premature in Orange, California. Christina was stillborn. The other six infants ranged in weight from 1 pound, 1 ounce to 1 pound, 13 ounces.

Over the next 19 days, three more of the infants -- David, James and Bonnie -- died from hyaline membrane disease, a condition in which the lungs collapse after each breath.

At the age of 2, the surviving infants -- Richard, Patricia and Stephen -- were found to have cerebral palsy. A year later, more bad news. The children also were diagnosed as mentally retarded.

Sam and Patti Frustaci -- who already had a healthy son named Joseph but wanted more children -- sued the fertility clinic and the physician that treated the wife with Pergonal, the same drug used by Bobbi McCaughey.

They won a $2.7 million settlement on behalf of the surviving septuplets, now 12 years old.

After the septuplets, more children

Even so, life had become a series of increasingly difficult tests for the teacher and her husband, an industrial tool salesman.

Living and medical expenses topping more than $1 million were only partially offset by offers of help; free food, goods and services; and an exclusive interview contract with People magazine.

In some cases, offers and endorsements faded away or never materialized.

In late 1990 -- 5 1/2 years after the septuplets were born -- Mrs. Frustaci, again using Pergonal, gave birth to healthy twins, bringing the family up to six children.

"She got the healthy babies she wanted," former Frustaci attorney R. Brown Greene said in an interview at the time. "That's what this was all about."

Family breakup?

Little has been heard from the Frustacis since then, but apparently there have been changes.

Late last week, CNN spoke with Sam Frustaci, who said he still lives in Southern California with all the children. All are okay, he said, but Patti Frustaci now lives elsewhere. He did not elaborate.

For now, Sam Frustaci appears content to let the media spotlight fall on the McCaughey family.

"I don't want people to know how I'm doing, how the kids are doing," he was quoted as saying in The Press-Enterprise of Riverside (California). "I really don't want to go there. It's not pleasant."

He said he wasn't following news accounts of the McCaughey septuplets. "I really don't have the interest," he told the newspaper.

Still, he had advice for the McCaugheys, cautioning them to avoid the publicity his family experienced.

"I hope and pray in all sincerity that their babies are healthy," Frustaci said.

"And I hope that together they can raise them in a way as normal as possible in that situation. I hope on their behalf that they can live as normal a life as possible."

Correspondent Ann McDermott and The Associated Press contributed to this report.  

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