"How is mom doing right now?" ABC 7's Marcel Clarke asked the new mom of five, Theresa Troia, nearly two months after giving a smooth and successful birth at Las Palmas Medical Center. Her quintuplets are the second set of quintuplets to ever be born in El Paso, Texas and the first at Las Palmas Medical Center.
"Mom is doing good. It’s been a roller coaster of emotions, but overall, I’m doing really good," Troia shared.
Standing just five feet tall, Theresa Troia is no stranger to adversity.
Her journey into motherhood began with heartbreak—a miscarriage during that pregnancy. What followed were emotional and medical hurdles, where the odds felt stacked against her.
“I got a lot of comments that I should think about reducing,” she recalls. “The risks of actually having them all... even my provider didn’t agree with keeping five. They dropped me.”
The idea of carrying quintuplets, was met with skepticism from friends, family, and even medical professionals. But Theresa didn’t waver. She held onto hope.
In a world full of “no’s,” Dr. Aaron Poole, OB-GYN and maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Las Palmas Del Sol Healthcare, was one who said “yes.”
Theresa describes him as the person who gave her hope when it felt like she had none.
“What made you take on her case and believe that her babies could be here today?” we asked him.
“For me, it’s always really important to be an advocate for the patient,” Dr. Poole said. “With teamwork, medication, and close observation, I believed we could get to the finish line and have five healthy babies.”
Theresa’s life has always been full—literally. She grew up as part of a set of quadruplets, one of four siblings born at the same time.
“My parents gave us name days,” she says with a smile. “We shared a birthday, but each of us had our own special day throughout the year. It made us feel seen.”
It’s a tradition she’s now carried on for her own children—baby Kyla, Joseph, Jaxon, Viviana, and Isabella. Each named after saints, just as her mother had done for her.
From loss to life and from fear to five healthy children -- Theresa Troia’s journey is more than a story of survival - it’s one of resilience, faith, and a mother’s unconditional love.
Her full story will air Thursday July 31st at 10 p.m.