Octuplets mom Nadya Suleman settles her workers’ comp case

The Los Angeles County woman who gave birth to eight children -- and was promptly dubbed "Octomom" -- has agreed to settle a workers' compensation case against a hospital where she was injured more than a decade ago.

Nadya Suleman, mother of octuplets and six other children, will receive $40,000 from representatives of Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, according to a copy of the settlement provided to The Times by the California Department of Industrial Relations.

Suleman was working as a psychiatric technician at the hospital in 1999 when she suffered a back injury during a disturbance at the facility. She returned to work only briefly and collected almost $170,000 in disability payments between 2000 and 2008, the documents show.

Of the $40,000 settlement, the documents show that Suleman will actually receive $23,120. That's after deductions of $6,000 for attorney fees and $10,880 for permanent disability payments already provided to Suleman, the documents show.

Suleman continues to grab headlines. Last month, she accepted an offer from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: $5,000 and a month's supply of vegan hot dogs and hamburger patties in exchange for allowing the animal-rights group to place an ad on her lawn. The ad read: "Don't let your dog or cat become an 'octomom.' Always spay or neuter."

She and her family have faced foreclosure and other financial woes. Suleman was widely criticized after the birth of the octuplets for her reliance on food stamps and other forms of public assistance. She called food stamps and other public aid she has received "a temporary resource." In November, she said in an interview with NBC News that she was no longer receiving food stamps or other public assistance.

-- Patrick J. McDonnell

Comments

[Jay]

What a disgusting person she is.

[Foreman Grilled]

Did she name them all George?

[po]

always "spay or neuter?" uhhhhhh...

[BelleStarr]

She should have been jailed for fraud. Her back wasn't hurt so badly that she couldn't get IVF and carry 4 single babies, 1 set of twins and octuplets. In addition to that, there are numerous pictures on the internet of her doing things that anyone with a hurt back just could not do - like giving 2 of her children a "horsey back" ride.

She needs to just go away - get back on welfare and stay home and raise the 14 pitiful, sad eyed, nelected children she just had to have.

Hopefully her IVF doc will take her and her lies down when he goes down for the charges brought against him by the California Medical Board for gross medical negligence in keeping that woman pregnant for ten years, stockpiling embryos with no clinical purpose and failing to refer her for psychiatric evaluation.

[Peanut Santiago]

Let's see, she (supposedly) got hurt at work and received workers compensation for nearly TEN years.

At the same time she was getting workers comp, there are photos and videos showing her pregnant...deliberate IVF pregnancies....(four single pregnancies, one twin pregnancy, and one OCTUPLET pregnancy). Easy to do with a BAD back.

While getting the money she has been shown jumping on a trampoline, carrying two toddlers at once. giving her kids horsy rides..... All the things disabled people with BAD backs do.

California, ya just got ripped off. The original workers compensation money (aprox. $167,000) AND now the settlement money ($40,000).

No wonder California is broke!

[JEM]

I've seen the photos and the videos. How can someone with a back injury handle back-to-back pregnancies? Nadya Suleman represents so much of what is wrong with California. Will this reporter please follow up with Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk and ask why they felt compelled to give this grifter one penny?

[Jimmy]

Her back hurts so bad she kept having babies? Last time I checked, pregnancy can cause back pain. If anything, she should be prosecuted for workers comp fraud and sterilized.

[My opinon means nothing]

Folks, don't look as this as an "octomom" story. The real story here is a workmans comp case taking over ten years to settle. This is not unusal. This is a sad statement of the state of California as to how the employees of this state are treated and thought of. If a person is injured on the job in this state, they are treated as a criminal by all involved except their lawyer. A person can not fight a workmans comp case without a lawyer. They will lose. They workmans comp system is set up to side with the business and hides itself behind a wall of buracracy.

[blondie]

They paid her $23,000 MORE on top of the $170,000 that she had already
collected? I didn't know you could have a "back injury" and have 6 back to
back pregnancies, including a twin pregnancy and an octuplet pregnancy, and
still walk. But wait, there is a video on ROL where she was holding 2 toddlers
and jumping on a trampoline 5 or 6 weeks after her octuplet csection!
Keep in mind these weren't unplanned pregnancies, but deliberate IVF
pregnancies that don't come cheap. I fully understand why CA is having
financial problems. I wonder how much the state paid Kaiser for the octuplet
birth? Your tax dollars at work people of CA! Enjoy!

[rocker686]

Sure...I believe she's not on public assistance. I call bs.

[tangled webs]

Considering she has way over $400,000 in a balloon payment due and she's holding a check for, what, $25,000, where does the guy holding the mortgage think she is going to come you with the other 95 percent of the payment? Undoubtedly this was dangled before him as the way to pay off the postponement.
This is a woman who wears $400 a month fake eyelashes while begging nationally on Oprah. She's run through over a million in media payments & donations from the public in less than a year. Investing it all on chop shop body work for herself & clothes that no longer fit her in the back of her closet. The money is gone, the nannies will be too, soon and she is done, done done. And so over.
14 kids. 18 years. Worst gamble ever.

[TheBigPicture]

She's definitely a head case....I have a feeling she may do something drastic sooner or later...the kids will probably be better off...

[Who cares]

Only in CA. Any other state would have hung her out to dry. I wonder if she will spend it all on herself or put it towards her house payment?
It's about time you grow up Nads.

[Elizabeth Cupp]

And here we all thought she was broke. Remember this settlement was reached in APRIL and she still had to do the PETA ad to pay her rent. Of course she spent beaucoup bucks this past March for yet another breast implant surgery, so I guess she really was broke after all. I suspect she has spent that $23k already!

[NoCalBarb]

She is quoted saying in AP's article on same topic

"Suleman has said the in vitro treatments that resulted in her brood of 14 children were paid for, in part, by a nearly $170,000 workers compensation award she has already received, in addition to disability payments for her two autistic children and student loan money."

Isn't the 3 children's disability payments supposed to go for their treatment/care and not breeding more babies? Same with the student loan money-supposed to go for education..or was this all just a big learning experience for the public? I guess she dropped her story about using inheritance money for IVF from her aunt so she wouldn't be accountable to welfare and IRS???

[NoCalBarb]

She not only received the $170,000 "disability" payments and now this settlement amount, there was a hefty amount also paid out to the doctors and for prescriptions/treatments over the decade that has been underplayed!(not mentioned much)They are still quibbling about some money still left unpaid to them!

[Barb]

I have an injury and just the thought of becoming pregnant is out of the question. I have had my children and have used state aid when and only when times got tough. When times improved then I stopped the aid. I wish I could get a student loan so that I could go back to school and get my degree. I guess you need to tell them you want to get a degree in biology to get the loans.