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The capital of India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, created history of sorts when India's first quintuplets were born in a private hospital on Wednesday.
Born premature, two of them, however, died within hours of delivery.
"So far, I have not heard of any other case of quintuplets being born in the country," Dr Darshana Kapoor, the gynecologist who handled the delivery of the five infants, told rediff.com.
"However, owing to the feeble condition of the newborn babies, we promptly shifted them to the special neonatal unit of the King George's Medical College," she said.
Both, the doctors at Lucknow's Nishat Hospital as well as the parents Srikumari and Raju Nair, looked equally surprised at the arrival of quintuplets.
"The ultrasound done on the mother had shown triplets, so none of us were prepared for what was discovered after I performed the surgery," Kapoor said.
She attributed the weak condition of the babies to 'premature pregnancy', while explaining, "I had to go for the operation nearly two months short of maturity because the mother's blood-pressure continued to rise despite medication and we could not risk her life."
Doctors also said that the babies were extremely feeble.
"It may not be easy to ensure the survival of other kids; they all weighed between 550 and 900 grams only," Dr K L Srivastava said.
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