Katelyn Yates had an awful sore throat when she went into the ER on April 1, 2024. It was painful enough that she thought she might need to have her tonsils removed. As part of a routine workup prior to doing some imaging of her throat, her doctors did a simple pregnancy test. The results floored her.
“On April 1st, we found out that we were pregnant,” she told KTVQ. But she wasn’t just a little pregnant. According to her doctor, her hCG was “off the charts,” and it turned out there were not just one but four babies.
Her now-fiancé, Julian Bueke, was “so excited” when he heard the news – much to Yates’ relief.
But the hard part was yet to come. Along with the joy of multiple babies, certain health conditions are more likely in pregnancies with multiples, including preeclampsia. The condition is characterized by high blood pressure, and its effects can include organ damage if not treated quickly. Quadruplet babies are often delivered early to help relieve the condition, and then spend some time in the NICU.
At some point in her pregnancy, Yates developed preeclampsia. During Yates’ third trimester, she started having problems with her liver and kidneys. Soon she was back in the hospital. “I couldn’t breathe on my own,” she told TODAY.
They waited as long as they could for the babies to develop a little more in utero, but at 28 weeks and 4 days, all four babies were delivered via cesarean section. On October 17th, Yates and Bueke had two boys and two girls: Elizabeth Taylor, Max Ashton, Elliot Ryker, and Zya Grace. On top of the rarity of spontaneous quadruplets, Max and Elliot were spontaneous identical twins. Spontaneous identical twins occur at about 4 per 1,000 births, roughly one third of all twin births. Estimates vary, but spontaneous quadruplets occur at roughly 1 per 700,000 pregnancies.
“The boys are identical, and the girls are fraternal,” Yates told KTVQ.
READ: ‘One-in-a-million event’: Woman with two uteruses gives birth to healthy twins
All this time, however, Yates’ parents had been worried for her and for the babies. They had hoped she would move from where she was living with her fiancé in Illinois to her hometown of Ballantine, Montana, so they could help her. Unfortunately her health problems meant that couldn’t happen, but it didn’t stop them from doing their best to help the couple and their new babies.
A family friend, Heidi Rank, decided to start raising money to help bring her parents to Illinois.
“I knew that they needed help. My husband and I made sure they got to Illinois,” Rank said to KRTV. “They’re just amazing people, just hard workers, and they would give the shirt off their back to help anyone in need.”
She has been raising awareness of the family’s need, and setting out donation jars from Ballantine to Billings.
“I’m just going to set those up around the community and hope that we can just get some funds coming in because this is going to be a really long journey,” she said.
Meanwhile, the babies who entered the world between 1lbs 2oz and 2lbs 4oz will be spending some time in the hospital to grow and stabilize a little more. And Yates says she is amazed at the progress they’ve made to date.
“They’re doing phenomenal. They are gaining weight and growing,” she said. “Elizabeth is about six grams away from reaching 2 pounds. It’s amazing to me how well they are doing. Just a few weeks ago, they were the size of my hand.”
Call on President Trump to pardon the FACE Act prisoners on his first day in office.
