Press Release
Party of Four
July 14, 2012
Party of four
BY BETHANY BRAY, STAFF WRITER
The Salem News
---- - BEVERLY - Standing behind four teenagers and four
birthday cakes yesterday, David Driscoll wore a T-shirt that said
it all: "You don't scare me, I have quadruplets."
The shirt, faded by repeated wearings and washings, was a
Father's Day gift from his children: Cullen, Killian, Riley and
Emma.
"It's been a heck of a ride," said the quads' mother, Mary,
laughing as her brood blew out their birthday candles.
The clan gathered at Beverly Hospital yesterday to mark the
quads' 15th birthday. The hospital has also thrown birthday parties
for their first, fifth and 10th birthdays.
The Driscolls were the first quadruplets ever to be treated at
Beverly Hospital; the facility has had one more set of quads come
through since.
The four infants spent several weeks in the Special Care Nursery
at Beverly Hospital after they were delivered prematurely July 17,
1997 at New England Medical Center in Boston.
Fifteen years later, they're going into 10th grade at Peabody
High School. They've developed different personalities and
interests, from baseball to flag football.
When asked yesterday what it's like to be a quadruplet -
probably for the hundredth time in her life - Emma shrugged and
said, "It's good, I guess."
It's hard to understand life as a multiple if you're not one,
the siblings agreed.
At yesterday's celebration, the Driscolls' friends and family
munched on pizza and cake and visited with doctors and hospital
staffers who stopped by to say hello. The quads traded some
good-natured ribbing as they sat at a table with friends.
Dr. Tai Tran, a neonatologist, and pediatrician Dr. Peter Short,
both of whom treated the quads at Beverly Hospital, were among
yesterday's party-goers.
Fifteen years ago, when the quads were ready to go home, the
hospital staggered their releases - to help the parents as much as
the babies, Tran said, smiling.
Mary Driscoll chuckled yesterday as she remembered that they
came home before she had even had her baby shower. At birth, the
smallest of the bunch weighed 2 pounds, 14 ounces and the biggest
was 4 pounds, 14 ounces.
The couple found out they were having four babies after going
through their fifth round of in vitro fertilization treatment in
the span of one year. They had decided it would be their last round
of IVF, whether or not it took.
"It was a blessing," said David Driscoll. "IVF was hell ... more
stress than (raising) the kids."
Bethany Bray can be reached at bbray@salemnews.com and on
Twitter @SalemNewsBB
