Angie Tran-Bloom
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Image List:
Image 1: A rare complication called placenta accreta nearly claimed Angie Tran-Bloom's life after she delivered triplets on Nov. 17, 2010. Here, she joyfully cuddles daughters Stevie, Lauren and Elise a few weeks later.
Image 2: Stevie, Lauren and Elise, from left, are naturally conceived identical triplets - which occur as rarely as once in 200 million pregnancies.
Image 3: Father Steven Bloom cradles Elise on the day she and sister Stevie were released from UC Irvine Medical Center. The third triplet, Lauren, needed a slightly longer hospital stay.
Image 4: Angie Tran-Bloom nuzzles Elise, the last of the triplets to be born. Shortly afterward, Angie began hemorrhaging. She spent the next 12 hours in and out of the operating room, ultimately requiring 50 units of donated blood.
Image 5: In the neonatal intensive care unit at UC Irvine Douglas Hospital, nurse Cheryl Sisco tends to Stevie as Lauren snoozes and Elise enjoys alone time with mom and dad.
Image 6: Gazing at her dad, Elise gets some lunch from a bottle. "What made the difference with Angie - and why I'm not a single father," Steven says, "is that there's a blood bank on campus."
Image 7: Tiny Elise is dwarfed by her car seat. She and her sisters each weighed about 4 pounds at birth.
Image 8: After two and a half weeks in the hospital, Angie and daughters Stevie and Elise prepare to go home with Steven. Lauren joined them a few days later.
Image 9: Steven gives Angie a smooch as the triplets doze in mom's arms. He kept vigil at his wife's bedside throughout her ordeal.
Image 10: Now 11 months old, the triplets are sitting up and teething. Angie's recovery has amazed her doctors. UC Irvine obstetrician/gynecologist Dr. Manuel Porto marvels, "You'd never know she had any problems."
Read feature:
Counting her blessings
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