At four o´clock in the morning, on May 28, 1934, Doctor Allan Roy Dafoe was roused from his bed at Callander, Ontario, by a hurry call to the home of Oliva and Elzire Dionne. Arriving at the small frame house on the edge of the north woods, the doctor found himself confronted by an extraordinary wonder.

Two babies had already been born to 25-year old Mrs. Elzire Dionne, a third was being born by the light of flickering kerosene lamps, and, shortly after the astonished Doctor Dafoe took charge, two more babies were born and placed under warmed blankets in an ordinary butcher's meat basket borrowed from neighbors. The probability of such a quintuple birth occuring has been computed by statisticians to be only once in fifty million births.

Fully aware that survival of quintuplets is even more unlikely than their birth, Doctor Dafoe hastily baptized them all, and, leaving instructions with neighbor women who had gathered, rushed out to get a priest for the mother, who gave every appearance of being a dying woman.

When the doctor returned, the mother had improved, and the five tiny girl babies were uttering faint kitten-like cries from their basket. For twenty-four hours nothing was given the babies but a few drops of warm water at two-hour intervals. administered with a kind of medical eye-dropper. Scales were not available for separate weighing of the infants, but at one time the combined weight of all five was less than ten pounds. Their birth had been premature, and they were far below normal development.

As soon as the news of the wonder spread, help began to come from all sides - daily consignments of mother's milk, medical supplies, incubators, olive oil for the delicate dabbing which was as near to bathing as the tender skins would at first permit. Frequent inhalations of carbon dioxide and oxygen helped to stave off the frequent crises of early days. Doctor Dafoe stayed on the job. The mother gained strength. The babies began to increase in weight.

Promoters flocked to the little Dionne home near Corbeil - newspapermen, cameramen, volunteer medical aids, all crowded the site. The Canadian government improved the road so that Doctor Dafoe could reach the place easily, no matter what the weather. Registered nurses were put in charge. The girl babies were christened Marie, Yvonne, Emilie, Cécile and Annette.