Here’s How Many Babies Were Born at Penn Medicine During Pope Weekend


Looks like Penn Medicine was a bit off in its estimation of how many babies would be born at its hospitals over Pope weekend — either that, or it was a Pope-related miracle that things were a bit slower than expected. 

Last week, Penn Med’s communications department released a nifty infographic detailing its state of Pope preparedness: how many sheets and towels they’d stocked up on (80,000 pounds), how much extra medication they had on hand ($1.25 million worth), and even how many pounds of chicken fingers they had stashed in the freezer (560).

They also estimated that 100 babies would be born at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) and Pennsylvania Hospital. But last night, Stephen Graff, Penn Med’s assistant director of strategic communications, sent out the final totals.

Ahem:

“As activities related to this weekend’s visit by Pope Francis wind down,” he wrote in an email, “all Penn Medicine city hospitals — the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP), Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and Pennsylvania Hospital (PAH) —report smooth and continuous operations. Since Friday, surgeons at HUP performed organ transplants on four patients. Twenty five babies were also born — 10 at HUP and 15 at PAH.”

Unfortunately, there was no update as to how many pounds of chicken fingers were actually consumed.

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