At 2 Days Old, Babies Are Already Big Stars

Septuplet mania has begun.

To judge by the calls, cards, telegrams and flowers pouring into two hospitals in Orange on Wednesday, the six surviving septuplets of Patti and Sam Frustaci appear to have captured the hearts of the nation as the 12-week premature infants fight for their lives.

Disc jockeys at Los Angeles radio station KIQQ-FM have promised to donate six bassinettes for the 2-day-old babies, who remained in critical but stable condition Wednesday in the neonatal intensive care unit at Childrens Hospital of Orange County (CHOC).

Six more beds--these waterbeds for the infants’ incubators--were offered to the Childrens Hospital neonatal unit, said hospital spokesman Doug Wood. He said such waterbeds are only occasionally used and he did not know whether the offer from the National Floatation Health Care Foundation would be accepted.

Even Sam Frustaci got into the act Wednesday. The proud father said he called KIIS-FM radio in Los Angeles and jokingly asked if he won a $5,000 prize for being the 25th caller, a daily promotional game of the station. He wasn’t, but disc jockey Rick Dees allowed as how the Frustacis could use the money and surprised the father with an offer of $1,000.

A huge banner draped Tuesday over the tri-level hospital parking structure remained intact Wednesday, proclaiming:

“Congratulations! Sam & Patti Frustaci. Great Teamwork!”

At St. Joseph Hospital, where the babies were delivered and Patti Frustaci remains in the intensive care unit, the switchboard has been flooded with calls of well-wishers, hospital spokesmen said. Many of the calls are from new mothers offering support, prayers and outgrown baby clothes, said spokeswoman Valerie Orleans.

Sam Frustaci was presented with an oversized, crayon-colored greeting card Wednesday, made by the young patients in the Childrens Hospital cancer ward for the hospital’s smallest additions.

“Welcome to the World, Babies A, B, C, D, E and F. CHOC Children Love You,” read the card, decorated with the hospital’s logo, a teddy bear with a bandaged arm. Inside, there appeared to be children’s drawings and messages, but Sam Frustaci declined to show them.

Bouquets Arrive

Bouquets of flowers for Patti Frustaci began arriving Tuesday, but at first they were routinely sent back by the staff of the intensive care unit, which reserves its limited space for patients and life-saving equipment, according to St. Joseph spokeswoman Debra Conkey.

But Wednesday the hospital staff set aside a separate room in the admitting office to collect the flowers, gifts and telegrams.

By late afternoon, the room was filling up with three bright bouquets (one of them from a morning network news show), two unopened telegrams and a big, sealed gift box containing something heavy and decorated with six helium-filled balloons.

In addition, a huge basket filled with stuffed toys and six flowers arrived at the hospital Tuesday and apparently was passed along to the family, said Natalie Cygan, an admissions supervisor.

A staff member of Rep. Robert Dornan (R-Garden Grove) called from Washington, D.C., Wednesday afternoon to inquire where to send flowers and a telegram, Orleans said. The six babies and their parents, Riverside residents, are not constituents of the congressman and the infants weren’t even born in his district.

Septuplet mania got off to an early start among the hospital staff of more than 40 nurses, doctors, anesthesiologists and respiratory therapists. Twenty-five of the most critical members of the delivery team were equipped with electronic beepers, all with a single number.

Beeper Drill

Two weeks before Tuesday’s birth, Tes Pane, chief nurse for St. Joseph’s neonatal team, decided to hold a drill. All 25 beepers went off in unison, Pane said. The only problem, was that all 25 beeper wearers jammed the hospital switchboard calling in.

While growing, the commercial interest in the Frustaci babies so far has not been clinched with formal deals, Sam Frustaci said Wednesday.

He referred all inquiries to his attorney, Andrew Wallet, who said he is being beseiged with calls. Wallet, a friend of the Frustacis and a fellow Mormon, whose Beverly Hills civil practice he says includes many clients from the entertainment industry, indicated he is negotiating with several publications for exclusive rights to the septuplets’ story. He said he also plans to begin soliciting baby product firms for possible endorsement contracts.

And the mania was taking a physical toll on many involved in the births. Both Sam Frustaci and his wife’s obstetrician, Dr. Martin Feldman, arrived at the hospital at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday to be interviewed on a network news program broadcast from New York, and they looked haggard by mid-afternoon.

Frustaci abruptly curtailed a flurry of interviews with media from around the world Wednesday morning, saying, “I’ve got to get some sleep sometime.”

But fame got the better of him. Both he and Feldman managed to stagger back into the press room Wednesday afternoon for a long-distance interview on a Canadian Broadcasting Corp. news show.