QUAD WHO BEAT THE ODDS
He was half the size of his sisters, but little Logan is now home at last
THE quadruplets look a picture of health and cuteness after celebrating their first birthday.
But behind the joy lies a fight for life by the only boy among the siblings.
After months of anguish in which parents Melisa Patino and Jonathan Besley feared losing little Logan, their four babies are finally all together at home.
Logan was born half the size of his sisters after they were conceived naturally, beating odds of 700,000 to one.
He has been in and out of hospital for much of his first year, spending weeks on a life-support machine with doctors warning he might not survive.
‘But amazingly he managed to hold on,’ said Mr Besley, 35. ‘He was such a fighter.’
Miss Patino, 34, added: ‘It’s wonderful to have all the babies home at last. Logan has had such a struggle but now he’s finally back with his sisters where he belongs.
‘To celebrate their first birthday with them all home together was wonderful. There were times when we didn’t even think Logan would be She coming discovered home.’ she was expecting quads when she went for a scan at eight weeks.
‘The sonographer told me I was pregnant with four babies. He was as shocked as I was – he’d never seen four in one pregnancy before.’ When Miss Patino was 25 weeks into her pregnancy, the couple, from Dorking, Surrey, were told the smallest baby was unlikely to survive as he was not getting enough nutrients from the placenta. Mr Besley said: ‘For the next eight weeks, we were told he wasn’t going to make it to the next scan but he hung on and made every one of them.’ The quads were born by caesarean section at 32 weeks in July last year with Logan weighing 1lb 3oz while sisters Maddison, Evie and Cassidy were more than 3lb each. Miss Patino said: ‘We wanted to call him Logan after the X-Men character as he was our fighter.’ The babies went home in September but Logan was taken back into hospital again within 24 hours with bronchiolitis and was put on a life-support machine. He recovered and was allowed home again but was never back for more than a week before needing to return to hospital. Finally Logan was allowed home for good in January and had his first birthday nine weeks ago. Mr Besley said: ‘The girls are great with him. He’s behind in his development and smaller but they dote on him. And he watches and tries to copy them, which is great for helping him improve. ‘Even though they have had so much time apart, they have an unbreakable bond.’ Around one in 65 babies born in England and Wales each year is from a multiple birth, mainly twins and triplets. In 2017, five women gave birth to four or more babies.