Fired Nurses: Octuplets Mom "AWOL"

(CBS)  The lawyer for the group of registered nurses that was providing free training to the nannies caring for octuplets mother Nadya Suleman's 14 children until Suleman told them to leave charges that Suleman is "AWOL" as a mother.

The head of that group describes the situation in Suleman's home as "chaotic" and totally lacking in security.

The allegations came in an interview Thursday with The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen.

Linda West Comforti, a registered nurse and founder of Angels in Waiting, told Chen the environment in the home in the Los Angeles suburb of La Habra is "chaotic, and that's an understatement. Her older children have no bedtime schedule, no schoolwork schedule. They're up till two o'clock in the morning, running around the house. I literally, myself, had to get one out of the backyard around 1:30 in the morning, because he was outside playing. He somehow escaped the nanny that was supposedly watching the older children, and he was outside playing. And I asked him to come in.

"And that was literally minutes before we had an intruder in the backyard at Nadya Suleman's house because there is no security that has been provided for her, the nurses or the babies that are in the nursery."

Comforti says she "rarely saw Nadya Suleman. She was either out shopping or up in her bedroom or just not available, not available to me and not available to her children."

Suleman told Radaronline.com one reason she kicked Angels in Waiting out was that Comforti kept saying Comforti feared that the children would probably be abducted. Suleman told the Web site hearing that over and over made her feel "almost nauseous" because she "harped on it."

"I was very, very concerned," Comforti confirmed to Chen. "One thing we have to understand is that these babies' faces are all over the world. We have -- I personally have had threats, that these babies need to be placed in other homes. I was very, very concerned.

"First of all, there's TV programs all over the lay of the house, showing where the lay of the house is or how to get into the backyard. We have locations on where the nurseries are. And I'm very, very concerned. We had no security whatsoever there. We had intruders three times in our backyard. By the time we called the cops, they were gone. And there's no security at all.

"My nurses were concerned. The nannies voiced concern. So, I talked to Nadya on several occasions. I talked to Nadya's dad (and told him) that I am very, very concerned that these infants could be abducted or even worse. Somebody could come in and hurt us all. Where is the security?"

"And in fact," said Gloria Allred, lawyer for Nurses in Waiting, "she asked Nadya to get a security guard, and I also sent an e-mail to her attorney about the need for security, given that there had been an intruder. And the attorney did not respond to my e-mail.

"In addition, Linda says that Nadya said that she couldn't afford a security guard, but she said that at the same time she was having an expensive Jacuzzi bathtub installed right next to her master bedroom. So I think that the security for the little babies and her other six children is more important than having a new Jacuzzi put in."

Allred says she plans no legal action over Suleman's fitness to care for her kids but, "Linda, as a registered nurse, who is a legally-mandated reporter, has a legal duty to reports to the authorities if she thinks the babies are being neglected or in any way endangered, has filed three reports, and we hope that the authorities, child protective services, will do what they can do to make sure that these little babies are protected, because, unfortunately, Nadya seems to be AWOL from taking real care of her own babies.

"She was only there to feed them and care for them eight hours of the 102 hours that Angels in Waiting was in the house. And she needs to get in there and start feeding her babies and bonding with her babies. And I don't mean just when the cameras are rolling, which is most of the time that she was there feeding them when we were there."

[hamiltongrad]

Who would want these intruders in their home ? This poor woman is not the President or the Pope and deserves privacy.

[enluv2]

Until you have experienced the drama associated with home health care, sure, this story sounds like the agency is OH SO CONCERNED about the well being of the children. As the parent of a special needs person, who has required skilled nursing care for the most part of his life, I can read between the lines. The group has been EMBARRESSED by the woman who fired her, because this is a public interest story. I have EXPERIENCED the nightmare of having nurses come into your home to TAKE OVER as opposed to providing the care necessary and not overstepping boundaries. Her mistake with this aspect of drama in her life was ALLOWING the woman who had already complained to CPS out of offense, to supplement her with home health.

Not all home health nurses are bad, but there are plenty of them who are. Some of them are nurses who have burned all of their bridges and can only obtain employment through a last resort of home health. Those who are the disgrace to this line of business, come into homes and refuse to respect the boundaries of respect: half working and patients end up with bedsores, call out and work when they want without regard to the fact that if they arent able to work time is needed to provide a replacement and usually the family is left hanging, breach the family's confidentiality by gossiping about the family's personal business, night nurses who sleep on the job and usually get away with it until something happens that exposes them, assume parental or power of attorney decisions that they have no business making that has nothing to do with the care of the child, snoop around the house while the family is asleep, talk on the phone for most of the shift instead of caring for the patient, or steal.

There are a pletheura of problems that come with the bad nurses. The good ones are diamonds in the raw.

If conditions were that bad CPS would have reacted immediately. Believe me, they are trying to save their reputation. That's the gyst of the entire reaction that has transpired.I do believe having 14 kids is extreme as a single parent, but the actions of the organization are vindictive and ugly.

[sushshaf]

i am only repeating what i read on read on another board. it was stated that she was told by the hospital staff that she could not bring the toys etc belonging to the older children and herself to the new premises due to the chance of contamination. she was ordered to go and buy everything new. the hospital is also mandated to report their concerns to cps and they have not. indeed they have allowed her to take the children home. quite a long list of things were requested before she could take the children home.

with regard to her ability to look after her children; even her mother who was anti the whole thing admitted that she is an excellent mother. it is an interesting point that someone brought up that no one has come out of her past to say anything horrible about her. this is the time that people see and oportunity to make money from interviews and none have surfaced.

i expect her life is a roller coaster ride at the moment and since she has no experience with media she is bound to make mistakes such as drinking starbucks and asking for handouts at the same time.

i am sure she is no longer getting anything from welfare. they would have been watching her like a hawke as this story is so high profile.

i would not have let aiw into my home since they were represented by allred who stated from the get go that she had complained to cps. you had to know that they were not on nayda's side. even though conti (or whatever the head nurse is called) made the complaints cps has not stepped in. that has to tell you something. plenty of false claims are made to cps and clog up the system. if the children were left under the supervision of one of the nannies and the child escaped outside at 1.30am how is that nadya's fault? how come the nanny isn's accountable? i expect that the older kids are a little keyed up at this time. a new house, new school, new babies, media attention, rather than complaint to cps help the kids to settle.

honestly!!

[cspanny]

Nadia should have had ALL her children taken away and forced to be fixed...then she should be fined the millions of tax dollars it costs to hospitalize these children

[Phxfire]

So many things that could be said and most already have by some very astute posters.

I have one little questions of concern. With overworked and overwhelmed CPS workers all over the country, what will it take to get some intense and realistic monitoring of the conditions and risks? I am sick of Nadya, but admit to being concerned about the children. Everytime the news starts a story about the family I am a little nervous its to announce the serious injury or worse of one of the children.

[MedCareProvider]

We ALL feel sorry for the children at www.medcareprovider.com . :-((

[ReginaFilangee]

"...nurse Comforti....is looking for trouble....."---Posted by sharalyse at 4:18 PM : Mar 27, 2009

Of course she is. That's why she was there....to protect the welfare of the babies and be THEIR guardian and spokesperson. Nadya only made it (the trouble) too easy to find, however. She gave the nurses "the boot" for the same reason a known embezzler doesn't want to have a CPA/auditor as a direct, day-to-day supervisor while in a position to embezzle again. She knows she'll get caught. That's because Nadya is physically, emotionally, and financially incapable (she keeps proving it every day) of providing the care that her children NEED....and she doesn't want to let anyone who has any type of authority to report it (credibility) be around to see that.

If she would get out of the stores, stay at home, and get off her hiney to TAKE CARE OF her children, there would be nothing to report. I for one believe that if she did that, it would make the nurses ECSTATIC. Everything I've seen from them indicates that that's all they want from her....adequate (note I didn't say perfect, just adequate) care of her own children. In exchange, they had agreed to donate their services to her for free as long as they reasonably could. After that, private financial donations would continue to pay for them rather than Nadya sucking up public (taxpayer) money to which she is neither morally nor ethically entitled.

[DefendLiberty]

Dysfunctional families are the "gift" that gives for a child's entire life. These kids are going to be messed up. Many of them will end up in jail or otherwise become a burden on society.

No doubt the wacko right is happy though. The woman made babies from fertilized embryos and did it without having s-e-x. What a sad joke.

[sharalyse]

I wouldn't want nurse Comforti in my space either. I have never seen this woman smile or be anything other than critical and sour. She is looking for trouble and if she doesn't see it, she will imagine that it might happen. She's bad energy. I'm glad she was given the boot.

[white_dog_crap]

LETS JUST ALL AGREE TO IGNORE HER AND WE'LL NEVER HAVE TO SEE HER STUPID LOOKING UGLY TWILIGHT ZONE FACE EVER AGAIN.