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Fifth Sextuplet Ready To Come Home

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By STEVE KORNACKI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 9, 2007

WESLEY CHAPEL - Ryan Patrick Byler is scheduled to come home today in time for a house call check-up by the pediatricians treating Florida's first sextuplets. Ryan would become the fifth of the set to be released from All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, where Charlie Craig remains in fair condition.

"Ryan had not been taking his feedings by bottle and that was his last hurdle," said his father, Ben Byler, on Friday. "But now he is feeding regularly with the bottle and is ready to come home. He weighs nearly 7 pounds."

The sextuplets were born Sept. 1, two months premature, at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, each weighing between 2 pounds, 5 ounces, and 3 pounds.

He said that his wife, Karoline, hopes to have Ryan home in time for a late-morning checkup by their Tampa pediatricians Frank Demery and Mark Biella.

"Charlie is still two to three weeks away from coming home," Ben Byler said, "but he is taking feedings by a bottle and doing well." Charlie is receiving oxygen and has a nasal breathing tube.

The Bylers have outgrown their six-seat Dodge Caravan. On Friday, the couple used a van and a car to take their 4-year-old child, Zoe, and the four infants to All Children's for vision tests.

Brady Christopher was the first to come home Oct. 18, followed by Eli Benjamin and Mackenzie Margaret on Oct. 29, and Jackson Robert on Nov. 2.

Karoline Byler has said she hopes to have all six home for Christmas.

Reporter Steve Kornacki can be reached at (813) 731-8170 or skornacki@tampatrib.com.

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