American Scene: 100,000 Facebook users use organ donor option

HOUSTON — The parents of Houston-area sextuplets born last month said Wednesday that one of the babies is battling some health problems but they are confident she will recover and are looking forward to taking all six newborns home soon.

Lauren and David Perkins said their three boys - Andrew, Benjamin and Levi - and two of their girls -Allison and Caroline - are doing well. The third daughter, Leah, had surgery Monday to repair a portion of her bowel, and her parents say she is a “fighter.”

Mrs. Perkins, 28, of the Houston suburb of Pearland, said it has been upsetting to watch Leah struggle.

“Leah is just a roller coaster for sure,” she said. “We get excited for all of her gains and then it’s heartbreaking when she has a big setback. She’s been able to recover from everything so far. We are just confident she will be able to pull through.”

The sextuplets, who were conceived after their mother underwent fertility treatment, were born April 23 - 10 weeks premature.

The babies could be healthy enough to go home in 10 weeks or so, said Dr. Charles Hankins, a neonatologist at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, where the children were born. The heaviest of them weighed 2 pounds, 15 ounces at birth, and they need to be up to 4 to 5 pounds before they can leave the hospital, he said.

PENNSYLVANIA

Penn State gives $1.1M to abuse-research center

STATE COLLEGE — Seeking to make amends for the Penn State child sex scandal, the university said it has given more than $1.1 million in football bowl revenue to its new center for child abuse research and treatment.

The Center for the Protection of Children, started in the wake of child sex abuse accusations against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, will offer treatment for abused children and a primary care clinic for foster children. It also will sponsor research into the prevention, detection and treatment of abuse; offer training; provide advocacy; and collect data.

“We expect that the center will become a national leader in clinical care, research, education and direction of policy related to child abuse and neglect,” Penn State President Rodney Erickson said in a statement Wednesday.

The funding is more than twice the amount that Penn State had promised in December. The university said higher-than-expected bowl revenues allowed it to give more. Penn State’s share of Big Ten bowl proceeds totaled $2.6 million, of which $1.5 million has been donated to the Pennsylvania Coalition against Rape, a group that operates rape crisis centers across the state.

The Center for the Protection of Children will be based at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital and bring together clinicians, scientists, legal scholars and educators. Its director, Dr. Andrea Taroli, said the additional funding will help it get off the ground more quickly.

• From wire dispatches and staff reports