Surviving Septuplets in Critical Condition

LONDON —  Five of seven infants born to a Liverpool, England, woman who had taken fertility drugs were in critical but stable condition Monday after the deaths of two babies over the weekend.

“The biggest danger is the underdeveloped stage of their lungs,” an attending physician said. The surviving infants, none weighing more than two pounds, were suffering from an array of respiratory problems, he said.

Britain’s first septuplets, four girls and three boys, were born four months prematurely to 27-year-old Susan Halton on Saturday. Twenty-seven doctors and nurses were involved in the Caesarean section operation.