Wisconsin doctor pulls double duty: 4 sets of twins in 24 hours

The La Crosse hospital where he works welcomed 31 sets of twins last year.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. Dec. 24/31, 2007.

What could have been double trouble for Ken Merkitch, MD, turned into a double pleasure.

The day after Thanksgiving, the ob-gyn took call for a colleague at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse, Wis. Instead of having an easy post-holiday, however, he accomplished something quite unusual.

He delivered four sets of twins in 24 hours.

"It was kind of a crazy 24 hours, but it was never overwhelming to the point where I needed to call somebody else in," Dr. Merkitch said.

His Nov. 23 started quietly enough at 8 a.m. as he checked on patients in the hospital during his on-call duty. Then a couple came in about 10 a.m. Dr. Merkitch delivered the first set of twins, Samantha and Maxwell, to parents Sarah and Mark Davis at 11:23 a.m. and 11:31 a.m, respectively.

The second set, named Marisa and Makenna, arrived at 8:37 p.m. and 8:40 p.m. to Delarae and Colin McHugh.

Annie and Steve Mach greeted their twins, Milo and Maggie, at 1:04 a.m. and 1:11 a.m.

And Carissa and Aaron Smith welcomed Ayden and Avery at 3:23 a.m. and 3:24 a.m. Those two required the only C-section of the group.

"I've probably had two [sets of twins] in 24 hours, but I've never had four," Dr. Merkitch said.

The National Center for Health Statistics, in its latest report on the subject, counted 386,018 incidences of twin births in the United States from 2002 to 2004, or 31.6 out of every 1,000 births. In Wisconsin, the number was slightly below average -- 6,324 twin births, or 30.8 out of every 1,000. Dr. Merkitch said Gundersen Lutheran had 31 sets of twins born in 2006.