Woman ‘in Shock’ Upon Learning She’s Pregnant with Quadruplets After Going to Doctor for Sore Throat

Katelyn Yates went to the hospital on April 1 with a sore throat, but she left with bigger news: she was pregnant with quadruplets!

In an interview with Today, the 20-year-old nursing assistant from Illinois explained that it all started when she arrived at the emergency room with pain in her throat, and was told she needed an X-ray to figure out what was wrong. But before she could have one, she’d have to take a pregnancy test, since the radiation can be harmful for fetuses.

When she got her results back, the level of her human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) — the hormone produced by the placenta during pregnancy — was “off the charts,” she was told.

“I was completely in shock,” Yates told the outlet, adding how she thought the doctor was playing a prank on her, given it was April Fool’s Day.

She adds how her now-fiancé, Julian Bueker, 21, whom she’d only been dating for six months at the time, was “so excited” and kept her calm.

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Yates went on with the pregnancy, which turned out to be complicated. She was ultimately diagnosed with preeclampsia, which can cause persistent high blood pressure after 20 weeks.

“I couldn’t breathe on my own,” Yates said, adding how during her third trimester her liver and kidneys started to fail, too.

Then, on Oct. 17, at 28 weeks and 4 days, Yates gave birth to the quadruplets: Elizabeth Taylor, Zya Grace, Max Ashton and Elliot Ryker (the latter two are identical twins, per Today). The babies were born at HSHS St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, Ill., by C-section. Yates said of all the babies, Elizabeth was the smallest, weighing 1 lb., 2 oz., while Max, the biggest of them, weighed 2 lbs., 6 oz.

Now, “they’re doing phenomenal. They are gaining weight and growing,” Yates told Today. “Elizabeth is about six grams away from reaching 2 lbs.”

“It’s amazing to me how well they are doing,” Yates added. “Just a few weeks ago, they were the size of my hand.”