The Magnificent Seven

By HAFSATOU DIOP

IOWA - On November 19, 1997, 29-year-old Bobbi McCaughey accomplished a miracle by giving birth to seven babies: four boys and three girls. The Caesarean section delivery took six minutes. The doctor said if things continue to go well in the neonatal care unit at Blank Children's Hospital, the babies will be the first healthy septuplets ever born in the U.S. The children, destined to be known as the McCaughey Septuplets, were named Brandon James, Joel Steven, Nathanial Roy, Kenneth Robert, Natalie Sue, Alexis May, and Kelsey Ann. Their weight varied between 2 lbs 5 oz and 3 lbs 4 oz.

Robert Hepworth, Bobbi McCaughey's father, said, "I'm probably one of the proudest grandfathers in this country at this moment." The mother, who had taken the hormone Metrodin which stimulates the production of eggs, didn't expect it to result in seven babies. Even the doctors didn't know what had happened. Yet the doctors were not sure late yesterday whether any of the seven babies were identical twins. Tests were performed over the next several days to determine if any of the children were physical matches.

McCaughey added,"we trust that God will provide. And we will wait and see what happens." Some related facts:

• There are no known previous surviving sets of septuplets in the world
• Without fertility drugs, the odds of giving birth to septuplets are 464 billion to 1
• Estimated formula consumption per week: 11 gallons
• Estimated hospital bill: between $325,000 and $1,250,000
• Estimated college cost: $1 million plus
• Estimated average amount of sleep per day for parents: less than 2 hours.

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Beware U-Haul Rental Trucks

By JIMMY MOUX

Bad breaks, loss of steering, holes in the tires. This is the condition of several U-Haul trucks that people are renting today all over the U.S. Accidents are the result of these badly conditioned trucks.

A man died recently because of a malfunction in his rented truck, and his wife is suing U-Haul. The truck that killed her husband had a pedal problem; it accelerated until it hit a traffic jam.

Another woman reported to U-Haul company in California that her truck was in bad condition, but the employee denied it. They did not check the truck after the customer brought it back, but rented it to another customer an hour after the previous one left.

U-Haul does have a checking routine to do every 5,000 miles and every time a vehicle is checked in and before it leaves. But the employees of U-Haul are not doing them well or at all. In fact, a web site exists dedicated to a growing number of customer complaints.

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