Second Canadian sextuplet dies - report

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan 23 (Reuters) A second of the six babies born earlier this month in a Vancouver hospital in Canada's first delivery of sextuplets has died, a local radio station reported today.

CKNW Radio reported that another of the babies born prematurely after 25 weeks of gestation and in intensive care at British Columbia Women's Hospital had died.

The station, which on January. 15 reported that a first sextuplet had died, did not reveal its source.

Officials at the hospital declined to comment, citing the family's request for privacy since the four boys and two girls were delivered. The family's name has never been made public.

As with the report on the first sextuplet death, CKNW did not say whether the child was a boy or girl.

Doctors say babies born in Canada after only 25 weeks have, on average, an 80 per cent survival rate and are normally required to stay in intensive care for about 100 days.

But medical officials have also said that care for the babies in this case could be more complicated because the parents are members of the Jehovah's Witnesses denomination, which objects to the use of blood transfusions.

REUTERS MQA RN0425