Mom Carrying Quadruplets Learns One Is Dying in Womb, So She Makes a Tough Choice

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It all started out as wonderful news for Ivanna Cardenas-Gutierrez and her husband, David Gutierrez. They were pregnant. But when the doctors did the first ultrasound, the happy couple were in for a big surprise, times four.

“The doctor’s like, ‘oh you have one baby. Now you have two, oh no wait, you have three,’ and he wouldn’t even say there was a fourth because he was in shock,” Cardenas-Gutierrez told CBS Miami. Given the 1 in 800,000 odds of having quadruplets, Cardenas-Gutierrez admits that she “thought they were trying to prank [her].”

However, after she and her husband got over the crazy surprise, they were excited and willing to take on the challenge.

About two-thirds of the way through her pregnancy, however, the cause for joy suddenly turned into a parent’s worst nightmare. When Cardenas-Gutierrez went to the hospital for a regularly scheduled checkup, her doctors told her that one of the four babies wasn’t getting enough oxygen.

Then the parents were faced with an impossible choice. At this point, the babies had only been in the womb for 27 weeks. As Gutierrez-Cardenas recalled in an interview with CBS Miami, the doctors gave her stark options.

“You need to make the decision right now if you want to keep going with the pregnancy and one of the babies will die in your belly or go ahead and take them out.”

What could the couple do? Either they risked having a stillborn baby to allow the other three to get to make it to full term or they delivered all of them dangerously early, especially the baby who was oxygen-starved and might not even survive.

The parents thought about what to do and turned to their faith for support. Despite the dangers, they wanted to give all four of their babies the best possible chances of survival.

They went through with an emergency c-section and all four babies were immediately transferred to the Neo-Natal ICU for treatment. Being so premature, the babies were incredibly small and underdeveloped. According to The Miami Herald, “they ranged from 2 pounds, 3 ounces to 1 pound, 3 ounces.”

All of them were in very delicate condition, but it was Gabriel, who hadn’t been getting enough oxygen in the womb, who was on the verge of death. As his mom said to CBS Miami, “he was dying [...] his color changed. He was starting to get white.”

Their little boy just couldn’t get enough oxygen to survive. The NICU staff told the parents, “we’re going to open the incubator so you can say your last words to him and say goodbye.”

But something happened in the NICU that doctors just couldn’t explain. Somehow, Gabriel started receiving more oxygen and eventually began to put on weight. Not only that, but all the other babies improved as well. It was a true miracle!

“I think it’s God’s will that he wanted him (Gabriel) to be part of the family,” David Gutierrez told CBS Miami. The couple shared pictures of their babies and soon had thousands of social media followers who were sending prayers and positive thoughts.

For David Gutierrez, there was no question that the miracle came from above. “I thought there were so many people praying for them that that’s what helped them get better.”

But while some parents might be completely drained by the whole process, the Gutierrez family was overjoyed to take on the difficult task of raising these four fighters.

Since then, the kids have grown and grown, each with their different personality. As they shared with the Miami Herald, “Gabriel’s a fighter, but doesn’t like to be bothered. Sebastian is the wild one, Julian is ’the man,' [and] Francesca is quiet.”

Ivanna Cardenas-Gutierrez continues to share pictures of her kids to give other mothers of premature babies hope and encouragement. Using the hashtags #godsquad and #lovetimesfour, followers can see how these miracle kids are growing up.

As she told CBS Miami, “they’re a blessing to all of us, and our family, and the whole world!”