From history to tragedy: Fifth sextuplet born to Costa Rican couple dies, only one remains alive

October 12^th, 2015 (EFE) Costa Rica’s National Children’s Hospital, or HNN, reported Sunday that the fifth of the sextuplets born on May 17 to 34-year-old Silvia Villegas, has died after a sudden medical emergency.

HNN director Olga Arguedas told reporters that Gabriel, the youngest child in the group, had taken ill and then suddenly died.

The baby had been receiving care at the Women’s Hospital.

The only remaining sextuplet is now Valentina, who on Aug. 10 left the Women’s Hospital two months after being admitted there.

Emma, Valentina, Tomas, Diego, Andres and Gabriel, the first known sextuplets in Costa Rican history, were born prematurely within a span of six minutes on May 17. It had been 27 weeks and five days since they were conceived, doctors said.

Once an extremely rare phenomenon, artificial insemination has made multiple births slightly more common today.  But conceiving sextuplets without the use of fertility treatments is extremely rare – in fact, the odds of giving birth to sextuplets without such treatments are one in 4.7 billion.

Villegas turned to artificial insemination to conceive the children in-vitro fertilization (IVF) remains prohibited in Costa Rica, according to media reports.

EFE with additional reporting by ICR News.