The Los Angeles woman who gave birth to octuplets last month fears she may not get the chance to raise her eight newborns.
Talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw told the Los Angeles Times that Nadya Suleman called him Tuesday afternoon, distressed after talking to hospital officials who are concerned she can't handle the load.
"What she is telling me is that unless and until she has a better living arrangement, that they are not likely to release the children to her," McGraw told The Times.
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This image provided by Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center shows the nursing staff posing for a photograph after delivering octuplets to a mother last Monday in Bellflower, California. [China Daily] |
Suleman, a 33-year-old single mother who already had six children before giving birth to octuplets Jan. 26, lives in Whittier with her mother in a three-bedroom house that is in pre-foreclosure. Suleman has no job and relies on government assistance, including food stamps and disability income for three of her six older children.
There was no immediate response to an NBC request for comment from Kaiser Permanente, the hospital.
Jim Anderson, Kaiser Permanente Southern California's director of media relations, told The Times "any conversation that the mother may or may not have had on this topic are private and we cannot discuss them."
The octuplets were born two months early, weighing 1 pound, 8 ounces to 3 pounds, 4 ounces each. They are all breathing on their own and in stable condition.
(Agencies via Xinhua February 27, 2009)