A rare surprise arrives in the Tri-Cities. This doctor couldn’t believe it

Janell Lum got the surprise of a lifetime at her first ultrasound.

The image showed not one, not two, but three little heads.

She was pregnant with triplets.

“I like to tell people that it is a good thing you are already lying down when you get an ultrasound — because you can just keep lying there in shock,” Janell said.

The Tri-Cities native delivered three boys Monday via C-section at Kadlec Regional Medical Center. Her husband, Dr. Joshua Lum, is a resident physician at the Richland hospital.

They boys are spending some time in the neonatal intensive care unit, but are doing well, their parents said. Enoch Daniel is 3 pounds, 10 ounces and 16 inches long; Isaiah Job is 3 pounds, 8 ounces and 16.5 inches long; and Malachi Noah is 3 pounds, 6 ounces and 16.2 inches long.

They join older brother Boaz, who’s 2.

Triplets are rare, especially spontaneous or natural triplets — conceived without fertility assistance — like the Lum boys. The likelihood of identical triplets is 1 in 2 million, the Lums said.

The boys were born at 34 weeks and one day.

They’re part of an excited extended family.

Janell, the daughter of Brian and Mashell Talbot, grew up in Richland and attended Liberty Christian School. She went onto Portland State University, earning a master’s in chemistry.

Joshua Lum graduated from Oregon Health & Science University’s medical school and is in his second year of a family medicine residency at Kadlec. Residency is an intensive training period.

He’s the son of Andy and Dayle Lum, who’ve relocated from Oregon to help with the boys.

Like his wife, Joshua Lum was surprised at the triplet news.

He wasn’t there when Janell first saw the three little heads on the ultrasound image because he was seeing patients. But as soon as he got a break, he headed over to her.

“When I got there, (Janell) said, ‘I have some very exciting news for you. Here, you can look with the ultrasound,’” Dr. Lum recalled. “So I took the ultrasound and started scanning. I found the baby’s head and said, ‘There’s our baby!’ But Janell told me to keep looking. I scanned some more and found another head, and exclaimed, ‘We’re having twins?!’”

But, of course, even bigger news was to come.

“Janell just laughed and said, ‘Keep looking!” Dr. Lum recalled. “I looked around with the ultrasound some more and found a third head ... Triplets!”

He was so shocked he dropped the ultrasound probe, he said.

But he was happy, too. So happy.

“I always pray for extra, extra blessing,” the father said, “and God answered my prayers.”

This story was originally published July 23, 2018 at 4:35 PM.