Thread: Octuplets' Mom Received $165G in Disability Payments UPDATED

Records: Octuplets' Mom Received $165G in Disability Payments

Thursday, February 05, 2009

LOS ANGELES — State documents disclosed to The Associated Press show that Nadya Suleman, the mother of the recently-delivered octuplets, received more than $165,000 in disability payments for an on-the-job back injury.

She worked at a state mental hospital from 1997 until December when she resigned. The payments were made between 2002 and 2008, during which time Suleman gave birth to most of her six other children.

Records provided to the AP following a public records request to the Department of Mental Health show that for much of that time, however, she was unable to work.

Reporters from all over the map have camped outside her doorstep and surrounded the hospital where she gave birth to the eight healthy babies last week, but people still don't know much about Suleman. That's about to change.

After managing to avoid reporters as she left the hospital Thursday morning, Suleman headed for her first interview, with Ann Curry of NBC's "Today" show. One of the octuplets mother's hastily hired publicists said she is staying at "an undisclosed location" while she considers offers including possible book and TV deals.

NBC News spokeswoman Megan Kopf said Suleman was not paid for the interview. An air-date announcement was expected later Thursday.

Not even a photo of Suleman has emerged and public records shed little light on her. The 33-year-old single mother, who now has 14 children under the age of 8, has used different names over the years and has been married and divorced once.

Neighbors say that while Suleman is quick to smile and wave to them, she generally keeps to herself.

"She's a very pretty woman and, yes, she's very friendly when I see her," said Thelma Steinweg, who said Suleman moved next door on the quiet, narrow cul de sac about three years ago.

"But I usually only see her going in or out of her house or on the steps, shouting at the kids when they're playing in the yard," Steinweg added.

Related StoriesSpokeswoman: Octuplets' Mom Wants to Tell 'Amazing' Story
As she spoke she glanced at Suleman's small front yard, littered with children's toys. A child's car seat sat propped up near the front door. From the front porch, Suleman's mother could be heard inside, singing to a crying child.

While Suleman, whose 14 children were conceived by in vitro fertilization, declined to speak publicly for days, she has come under criticism from TV and radio commentators, bloggers and others who have accused her of irresponsibly having more children than she appears prepared to care for. Some have accused her of having the octuplets in an effort to cash in with a TV or book deal.

Although her publicists acknowledge she is reviewing such offers, one of her friends said she simply loves children and didn't get pregnant for profit.

"She's not even interested in that right now," said Jessica Zepeda, who lives down the street. "It's funny and sad in a way, there's a lot of people saying really negative things and they don't know her."

Suleman's mother said she expects people's opinions to change when her daughter goes public with her story.

"She's a very likable person," said Angela Suleman, who spoke briefly with a reporter on her doorstep Wednesday. "She's basically normal except for this obsession she's always had with children."

Nadya Suleman, who public records show has held a license as a mental health technician, was listed on the payroll of Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk from 1997 until last year.

Her mother said her daughter hasn't worked since soon after becoming pregnant with her octuplets. She has also had to discontinue her pursuit of a master's degree at California State University, Fullerton, where she earned a bachelor's degree in child care development.

"She may not be able to finish her master's degree now and she was so close to wrapping it up," her mother said Wednesday.

Nadya Suleman's publicist Mike Furtney said she has told him it's her dream to eventually earn a Ph.D. in some field involving counseling.

Furtney said Suleman is "feeling great" and looking forward to being reunited with her octuplets, who are expected to remain in the hospital for several more weeks.

"She's happy to be out of the hospital, although she misses her children," he said. "She can't wait until they join her."

The octuplets were born nine weeks prematurely and will be released from the hospital individually as they hit a near-normal newborn weight.

"At this point in their development, they are not mature enough to coordinate the suckling and swallowing at the same time to be bottle-fed," said Dr. Mandhir Gupta, the hospital's neonatologist.

According to Steinweg, Suleman initially thought only six of the eight embryos she had implanted in her womb last year had survived. She learned later in her pregnancy that seven had. She was surprised again on the day she gave birth to learn there were actually eight. Born Jan. 26, the children are now the longest known surviving octuplets in history.

It still isn't clear who their father is, or who fathered Suleman's other six children, who range in age from 2 to 7.

Suleman listed a David Solomon as the father on the birth certificates for her first four children but gave a different birthday for him on each certificate and listed both Israel and California as his place of birth. He could not be located for comment.

She listed no father on the birth certificates for her fifth and sixth children, twins born in 2006.

Suleman herself has been known by different names over the years, including Natalie Suleman, Natalie Gutierrez, Nadya Gutierrez and Nadya Doud.

Suleman was married to Marcos Gutierrez in 1996 and was divorced last year, according to public records. Gutierrez did not return calls to numbers listed for him, and his divorce lawyer, Roberto Gil, declined to comment.

Divorce papers state the couple split up in 2000 and had no children, although Suleman had given birth to her first six children by the time the divorce was finalized.

Public records show Suleman's father has used the last names Doud and Suleman. Her parents married in Las Vegas in 1974 and divorced in 1999. Suleman was their only child.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,488627,00.html

Thanks. I don't subscribe to LA Times any more. Thanks for the post.

Related at http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-145253.html

What will come out about this woman next?

This woman is absolutely nuts.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

What will come out about this woman next?

yeah she will pop out another 6 or 8 at the American Taxpayers.

She turned having children into a business complete with reality TV show, book deal, paid interviews etc. And there will be more like her in the near future, I predict.

I hope they check into her scamming unemployment. If her back was so she couldn't work, how was she able to carry each pregnancy for 9 months the previous 5 TIMES before the octuplets (once carrying twins)? I can tell you it's backbreaking in the third trimester.

Threats send California octuplets mom into hiding

Wed Feb 11, 2009 4:12pm EST

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California's octuplets mom, already jobless and receiving food stamps, has gone into hiding with her six older children because of death threats, her spokesman said on Wednesday.

Nadya Suleman, 33, has come under mounting public ridicule for expanding her already large family via fertility treatments that led to the January 26 birth of six boys and two girls at a Los Angeles-area hospital.

That criticism has mushroomed as it was reported that she was divorced, living with her parents, unemployed for several years, receiving disability checks for three of her children -- one of whom is autistic -- and collecting nearly $500 a month in food stamps.

She acknowledged those circumstances in a series of NBC television interviews but insisted in a segment aired on Tuesday on "Dateline NBC" that she was "not living off any taxpayer money" and that assistance she now receives is temporary.

The broadcast drew the highest "Dateline" ratings since a 2007 interview with Britain's Prince William and Prince Harry.

Suleman, who was working toward an advanced degree in counseling, said she owes close to $50,000 in student loans, which also are her sole source of non-government income.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the Kaiser Permanente hospital where the newborns remain is seeking reimbursement for the cost of their care from Medi-Cal, the state's health care program for the poor. Those costs are expected to reach into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, the newspaper said.

'UNDISCLOSED LOCATION'

For the past few days, Suleman and her six older children, ages 2 to 7, have moved into "what we are referring to as an undisclosed location," said Michael Furtney, a public relations consultant working for the family. The Web site RadarOnline.com reported the family was staying at a hotel.

Furtney said Suleman and the PR firm have been deluged with hostile telephone and email messages in recent days, some of them containing threats of violence and death.

"The bulk of them just rail against her being, as they would refer to her, as a person who's taking advantage of the system, and they just go from there," Furtney said.

He also acknowledged that the hostile messages have so far outnumbered the well-wishes, but added, "the positive notes are beginning to catch up with the not so positive ones."

Some have been directed to a new Suleman family Web site that solicits private donations to help support them.

The site is adorned with photos of the mother and her eight newborns, along with images of a baby bottle, a pacifier, a rainbow and alphabet blocks spelling out the word "love."

Below the greeting, "We thank you from the bottom of our hearts -- Nadya Suleman and children," are heart-shaped links that invite visitors to comment and to make a contribution.

Furtney said people have primarily been offering furniture, clothing, food and other essentials, and someone even promised to donate breast milk. He said one Indiana farmer has offered to have the whole family live with him and his family.

He said "volunteers" were paying for her temporary living arrangements.

Suleman might temporarily move back into her mother's three-bedroom house in a Los Angeles suburb, but that house will likely prove too small for all 14 children, Furtney said.

Suleman's mother, Angela, has called her daughter's decision to keep expanding her family "unconscionable" and she said she had pleaded with her daughter's fertility doctor not to implant her with more embryos.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Cynthia Osterman)

http://www.reuters.com/article/domestic ... 11?sp=true

Taxpayers may have to cover octuplet mom's costs

By SHAYA TAYEFE MOHAJER, The Associated Press
4:17 p.m. February 11, 2009

LOS ANGELES — A big share of the financial burden of raising Nadya Suleman's 14 children could fall on the shoulders of California's taxpayers, compounding the public furor in a state already billions of dollars in the red.

Even before the 33-year-old single, unemployed mother gave birth to octuplets last month, she had been caring for her six other children with the help of $490 a month in food stamps, plus Social Security disability payments for three of the youngsters. The public aid will almost certainly be increased with the new additions to her family.

Also, the hospital where the octuplets are expected to spend seven to 12 weeks has requested reimbursement from Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program, for care of the premature babies, according to the Los Angeles Times. The cost has not been disclosed.

Word of the public assistance has stoked the furor over Suleman's decision to have so many children by having embryos implanted in her womb.

"It appears that, in the case of the Suleman family, raising 14 children takes not simply a village but the combined resources of the county, state and federal governments," Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten wrote in Wednesday's paper. He called Suleman's story "grotesque."

On the Internet, bloggers rained insults on Suleman, calling her an "idiot," criticizing her decision to have more children when she couldn't afford the ones she had, and suggesting she be sterilized.

"It's my opinion that a woman's right to reproduce should be limited to a number which the parents can pay for," Charles Murray wrote in a letter to the Los Angeles Daily News. "Why should my wife and I, as taxpayers, pay child support for 14 Suleman kids?"

She was also berated on talk radio, where listeners accused her of manipulating the system and being an irresponsible mother.

"From the outside you can tell that this woman was playing the system," host Bryan Suits said on the "Kennedy and Suits" show on KFI-AM. "You're damn right the state should step in and seize the kids and adopt them out."

Suleman's spokesman, Mike Furtney, urged understanding.

"I would just ask people to consider her situation and she has been under a tremendous amount of pressure that no one could be prepared for," Furtney said.

In her only media interviews, Suleman told NBC's "Today" she doesn't consider the public assistance she receives to be welfare and doesn't intend to remain on it for long.

Also, a Nadya Suleman Family Web Site has been set up to collect donations for the children. It features pictures of the mother and each octuplet and has instructions for making donations by check or credit card.

Suleman, whose six older children range in age from 2 to 7, said three of them receive disability payments. She said one is autistic, but she has not disclosed the other youngsters' disabilities, and refused to say how much they get in payments.

In California, a low-income family can receive Social Security payments of up to $793 a month for each disabled child. Three children would amount to $2,379.

The Suleman octuplets' medical costs have not been disclosed, but in 2006, the average cost for a premature baby's hospital stay in California was $164,273, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The average cost for just one cesarean birth in 2006 was $22,762 in California. Eight times that equals $1.3 million.

For a single mother, the cost of raising 14 children through age 17 ranges from $1.3 million to $2.7 million, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is struggling to close a $42 billion budget gap by cutting services, declined through a spokesman to comment on the taxpayer costs associated with the octuplets' delivery and care.

Suleman received disability payments for an on-the-job back injury during a riot at a state mental hospital, collecting more than $165,000 over nearly a decade before the benefits were discontinued last year.

Some of the disability money was spent on in vitro fertilizations, which was used for all 14 of her children, Suleman said. Suleman said she also worked double shifts at the mental hospital and saved up for the treatments. She estimated that all her treatments cost $100,000.

Fourteen states, including California, requires insurance companies to offer or provide coverage for infertility treatment, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. But California has a law specifically excluding in vitro coverage. It's not clear what type of coverage Suleman has.

In the NBC interview, Suleman said she will go back to California State University, Fullerton in the fall to complete her master's degree in counseling, and will use student loans to support her children. She said she will rely on the school's daycare center and volunteers.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... ndex=51389