Nadya Suleman Accepts Offer Of Help From Angels In Waiting; But Just Who Is More In Need Of It?
News on Octomom:
After first saying “no thanks”, Nadya Suleman has finally accepted the offer from Angels In Waiting for 24-hour nursing care for her octuplets when they come home, plus help with her other six children (three of which have special needs). Not only that, but none other than Dr. Phil (tellingly enough, the only person who’s been able to get through to her, further making me believe that many people really do believe what they see on TV is real) has thrown her a baby shower of sorts. Also, she’s finally pulling up stakes and moving into a new home…don’t ask me how she can afford a $500,000+ home when the one she is already living in is in foreclosure, because I don’t know.
The house is undergoing extensive renovation as we speak:
Don’t expect the Octo-Babies to be coming home this week. In a big setback for Nadya Suleman, social workers from Kaiser Permanente hospital just inspected the Octo-Mom’s new 2,500 square foot house in La Habra and they were not thrilled with what they saw.
A social worker liaison tells RadarOnline.com exclusively that Nadya’s new house needs the following work before her babies come home:
*All lighting moved up onto the ceiling. No lamps or cords on the floor.
*Fireplace needs safety guards
*Stairs need to be re-built.
*Upstairs banister on stairs raised to enclose entire 2nd floor.
*Hypo-allergenic air filters installed
*Bunk beds can not be next to window in upstairs bedrooms.
*Blinds need to be cordless
*Storage cabinets installedThe social workers were very surprised and disappointed Nadya didn’t show up for the inspection. She did give RadarOnline.com a tour of her new place last night.
They have demanded Nadya show up Thursday for another inspection at the new house. In short, the social workers say a lot of work needs to be done. The inspectors say the home is big enough but they tell RadarOnline.com exclusively they are concerned about the functionality and safety of the new home.
Workers are currently inside the house tearing up the carpet, taking appliances out, ripping up plumbing, measuring, adding storage and organizing… basically putting an entire new face on the new crib.
And just how much help will be needed once those babies come home?
Civil rights attorney Gloria Allred, founder of Angels in Waiting Linda West Conforti and Dr. Phil have entered into an agreement of care with Nadya for her octuplets. The agreement is formalized in a Declaration of Principles document with eight points.
Angels in Waiting estimates caring for the octuplets will cost approximately $135,000 per month and needs public donations. Aware of criticism of Nadya, the group released this statement about the babies: “These are innocents, born into the situation. We need help and we need help now.” Conforti confirmed it will take 11 nannies a day to make the situation work.
Allred told RadarOnline.com: “A retired judge, Dan Weinstein, will oversee the fund and ensure that all donated money will be used for the care of the children, and not one cent will go to Nadya or her family.”
Well, if you remember right, I suggested that someone outside the family oversee any financial donations to the octuplets. Great minds and all that.
But let’s take a look at this phrase: “Angels in Waiting estimates caring for the octuplets will cost approximately $135,000 per month and needs public donations.” Wow. $135,000 a month? A charity which takes care of these sort of medically at-risk infants should have at least some money in its coffers to give it a good start, right? After all, you wouldn’t offer to help innocent little babies unless you already had your funding in place, right? You would at least know the bills would be met every month, right?
Well, not so fast.
First, when she made the offer Gloria Allred said that the help for Nadya would come at no cost to the public:
“She did not accept our offer,” Gloria Allred told co-anchor Harry Smith on The Early Show Friday. ” … There would have been no burden on the taxpayers. Instead now, it may be that the taxpayers are going to have to foot the bill for all of this.”
However, she does admit that AIW would rely on public donations:
Allred acknowledged that “Angels in Waiting’s care can only continue if it is supported by donations from the public.”
So it would seem to me that whether or not the California taxpayers are ponying up dough from their taxes or their own pockets of their own free will, somebody is going to end up paying one way or another. I guess if the money isn’t donated and the bills can’t be paid, they will pull out and leave those children alone with Nadya? And that is helpful how, again?
But here’s some news: A blogger has uncovered some interesting information about AIW, and it isn’t all that encouraging. When she called AIW herself, she got some rather intriguing comments:
Not believing my eyes at this exorbitant amount [$135,000] I put in a call to Angels in Waiting and spoke to the founder’s husband, James M. Comforti. I informed him immediately that I thought the Pasadena Star News must have misprinted the amount of money needed. To this he replied, “Well what amount do you think this is going to take?”
I responded, “I have no idea, I’m not a professional in these matters and it is your organization who is stating this”
As our conversation ensued he named the items that would be needed, nursing care for the fragile preemies, therapists, occupational therapists (more than likely cp in the preemies) therapists for the three other disabled children (autistic, ADD, signs of autism), diapers, doctors visits and several other items.
Then came my question, “Does your organization have the budget to cover this massive undertaking”
“No, not at this time, but we are hoping to get donations and volunteers.” [emphasis mine]Other statements:
1. It is my wife who thinks this needs to be done in order to keep them out of foster care so they can stay with their mother. This is all about the CHILDREN, don’t you agree?
Of COURSE I agree.
2. We are a 5013c foundation set up to do this sort of thing.
3. Do you have this funding in place now? “NO, but we are hoping”.
4. I’m trying to figure out exactly what it is you are offering to do here. Are you offering to coordinate this effort? Answer: “Don’t try to put words in my mouth”, Response, “I’m not, but what is it exactly that you are doing?” “Look my wife thinks this is important because this is ONLY for the children and we think they need to be kept out of foster care.”
So, I got off the phone scratching my head. This organization Angels in Waiting, a charity according to Gloria Allred, wants to help but it’s going to take (per his words) “an undertaking like they’ve never done before”
(There’s also some info on there questioning AIW’s status as a charity, but it’s a bit dodgy to me and I don’t understand it all, so I’ll let you go there and make up your own mind.)
So. To get back to the point (and I do have one), just how much actual green money does AIW have socked away to help these babies?
The charity graciously offered care for the octuplets that they estimated will cost $135K per month, but an RRF-1 form obtained by “Extra” reveals that Angels in Waiting doesn’t have anywhere that kind of dough.
According to the form from California’s Office of the Attorney General, the charity didn’t have any assets or revenue at all in 2006. In 2007, their revenue hit $100, but they still had zero assets. In 2008, the charity was up to $5,000 in revenue and only $600 in assets. The form was filed on February 26, 2009.
And tell me again just exactly how offering to help someone without the proper funding already in place is riding to the rescue of these children?
That’s like sponsoring a little malnourished child from a TV ad, and then sending the child a letter saying you can’t afford the seventy-five cents a day. Or telling someone desperately in need of a transplant that you’ll pay for the whole thing and then backing out when they are already on the operating table, citing financial problems.
I’m not disparaging children’s charities or those who help at-risk infants and children. People who help with these sorts of issues and problems are truly special people and the world needs more of them. My own daughter benefited from specialized nursing when she spent time in the NICU and pediatric ward as an infant. However, to truly help these children (and remember, it is the children who are most important here, not their crazy mother), it would seem to me that one must have a concrete plan in place and the proper funding ready to implement that plan.
Social workers are already on the case here. From what I know of anything involving social workers, they don’t take good intentions as a solution; you’ve got to come up with a specific plan and then you’ve got to show that you are actively taking steps to put that plan in motion.
Good intentions just are not good enough; while AIW might have the best interests of the children at heart, that won’t get the job done. Nadya had “good intentions”, and look where they got her.
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I think they should TAKE ALL of her kids away – her dr phil appearances demonstrate that she is off her rocker and not a viable parent for any kids – just put em all in foster care for the good of the children. They will be better in the long run!!
Comment by Lynn J — March 12, 2009 @ 11:33 am
If Nadya can come up with most of the money for a $500,000+ new home, she should be contributing to the care of her children. Nothing in life is free, nothing.
Great write up k!
Comment by Dawn — March 12, 2009 @ 12:34 pm
Angels in Waiting is not entirely the “nonprofit nursing group” or “nursing charity.” It was established in 2005 as a nonprofit organization committed to moving medically fragile FOSTER CARE children into private residences under the care of RNs and LVNs. A network of RNs and LPNs provide foster care in their own homes. In California, nurses can become independent providers for foster children, billing Medi-Cal for their in-home nursing hours.
The Angels in Waiting Foundation is a 5013c that accepts donations. If they cannot raise the $135,000 per month from donations will the taxpayers be picking up the tab through the foster care system?
http://www.angelsinwaitingusa.org/nursesneeded.html.
Comment by Louise — March 12, 2009 @ 2:35 pm
Hi there, this is the one you quoted from above, Under the Holly Trees’ post on this.
Angels in Waiting received their 501c status October 2007, this is verified both in the large box (but the yellow to the side is hard to read) and simply verifying with the IRS using the tax i# at the top. I spoke to an IRS individual by phone who assured me that AIW could not have been collecting funds telling people they were tax exempt PRIOR to to the advanced ruling in OCT 2007, this is FACT.
It is also FACT that they did form a corporation in 2005 but it was NOT a tax exempt 501c UNTIL Oct 2007.
So when it is written the charity was founded in 2007 there is a slight fudging of words here because they were not a TAX EXEMPT charity as ruled by the IRS until Oct. 2007, they were a “non-profit” There are plenty of charity’s out there that are not tax exempt.
Read this and you will understand better.
http://nonprofit.about.com/od/qathebasics/f/donothaveto.htm
Hope that clears things up for you.
Here is more
http://www.cafcc.org/cnonprofit.html
MOST people think that donating to all non-profits is tax deductable, NOT TRUE until they receive their 501c status (this goes for all states)
All non-profits, 501cs or not strive for low overhead, volunteerism as much as possible so that the bulk of their donations go to actually do what they have as their mission statement. It is possible in this case because Linda Conforti has a CA Nurse Educator’s license to be paying herself out of this corporation/charity for the work she does to recruit nurses, that is allowable. Her MAIN goal is to recruit nurses to become In Home Health Care providers for foster care children in need of this level of care who are then paid by Medical.
But the fact is that at the time AIW sought to offer their services, actually to try to get Nadya to agree to move up to a “house” in the mountain area (a house I have never seen reported on anywhere in actuality, not saying it’s not true, just no reporter ever went to see it that I have been able to find)they did NOT have the funds to pay the professionals they claimed to have on board. Furthermore, the emphasis in the press has been on “Angels in Waiting are offering $135,000 of FREE child care”, the donation part of it was there but was never emphasized enough so that the public in GENERAL would know this wasn’t even possible unless the donations materialized. The press and public were focusing on this wonderful offer that Nadya at first turned down (BAD Nadya!) There was just the trotting out of Dr. Phil, Gloria Allred and AIW as the rescuers. SO now that “numbers are being crunched” and all of a sudden Allred is saying three months is enough to get them off to a good start she is ALSO saying no care will occur should the donations not come in while it is also being said that if no donations come in then they will find volunteers!
Point being, this was a screwy idea to begin with in my own opinion, all the hoopla and then down to saying well, if you don’t DONATE we can’t do this AFTER the Declaration of Principles was signed on air with much fanfare!
Comment by Robin — March 12, 2009 @ 2:49 pm
Thank you. I’m still a little confused but I may try to work this info into a future article (with links and credit to your posts, of course). I think I’ll sit back and see just what happens with AIW first… I have a feeling that their “help” may not materialize after all.
Comment by k — March 12, 2009 @ 6:15 pm
Maybe she could have put the money she spent on her new wardrobe toward the hospital bill that she’s sticking us with. It would have been a nice gesture. And, now that she can afford Tory Burch shoes, why isn’t Kaiser billing her? I’m sure that all of their subscribers have other uses for their money and THEY still get billed.
Comment by Gigi — March 12, 2009 @ 11:57 pm
Why a Retired judge? Why not a real court overseeing the money?
Come on Gloria Allred, you know better than that. Something does not smell right here.
Comment by vicki — March 13, 2009 @ 2:24 am
Yeah Gloria is just another ambulance chaser,trying to get her brain child funding,she is as bad as Nadya?How much does Gloria get for her services?They all are getting paid?Why doesn’t CPS stop this exploitation of theses kids.
Comment by Anonomyous — March 13, 2009 @ 12:42 pm
AIW sounds like the charity version of Octomom. All blow, no show.
Comment by HardHeadedWoman — March 13, 2009 @ 2:29 pm
Gloria Allred should be disbarred. She made a contractual offer on behalf of an organization that does not have the money to back-up their offer. Their existing donations are extremely low. They are using a mentally ill woman as their cash cow while pretending that they just want to help her. They knew that they don’t have the $135,000 per month to make good on their offer. Who is going to pay? The taypayers. Gloria Allred is dishonest and I hope that the CA Bar looks into her behavior. If Angels in Waiting was an honorable organization, they would not have made the offer and then hope on future donations. This organization needs to be put out of business. I hope that Nadya gets her children back homd and then kicks them out.
Comment by Lori — March 13, 2009 @ 4:58 pm
someone should ask media whore allred these questions.
Comment by sally — March 13, 2009 @ 5:50 pm
[...] Read the original: Nadya Suleman Accepts Offer Of Help From Angels In Waiting; But Just Who Is More In Need Of It? [...]
Pingback by Nadya Suleman Accepts Offer Of Help From Angels In Waiting; But Just Who Is More In Need Of It? | Autism Disorder — March 14, 2009 @ 8:20 pm
I would rather see that these children cared for in Foster Homes on Tax Payer money then see this sick selfish bitch benefit from one dime of tax payer money. We the tax payers have already payed for the birth.
Comment by jenwall — March 15, 2009 @ 1:28 am
Note,
Some updates have occurred to the AIW “offer”
http://jewishworldreview.com/0309/albom031609.php3
(Mitch Albon is a very well known author)
“By the way, these services cost around $50,000 a month, Angels in Waiting’s attorney, Gloria Allred, told me, and they are seeking to pay for that with — get this — public donations.”
Second: (Jackie Peebles is a board member of AIW)
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/babies-peebles-house-2336605-today-ready
“We want to make sure that everything will be safe for them,” Peebles said.
Six nurses will work 12-hour shifts to care for the infants, Peebles said. Other nannies also are expected to care for the older six children.
“Our team is ready,” Peebles said. “We’re more than ready.”
OK, when I spoke to Mr. Conforti about the huge figure put on the care ($135,000), he threw in, the older “two autistic” children, (only one has been diagnosed with autism, the other shows “signs” of autism), the child with speech delays, therapy for the entire family including Nadya and God knows what else, the kitchen sink, because Linda Conforti had figured it all out on her own the cost WITHOUT access to the medical records of any of the children.
Now we’re down to six nurses, 50 grand a month, only for the preemies and care cannot continue without donations. Has anyone here linked to either AIW’s homepage themselves or the link given to AIW from Dr. Phil’s foundation page? No where on AIW on either page are the octuplets mentioned. With a paypal donation how does any one decipher what the donation is intended for? Are all the donations going in there now presumed to be for the care of the octuplets without even having that stated at AIW? I don’t know about anyone else reading here, but that sure seems odd to me.
Comment by Robin — March 16, 2009 @ 8:30 pm
No comment on the entire situation on what to do or not do except that eight children of the mother seems to gain all the sympathy and attention of the public. 135,000 divided by 8 equals 10,800 per child or 1.62 million for one year. I am certain on the same day at the same time somewhere a child was born to a mother without means to support that child.No big story there. What percent of signifigance was that mother childs life mean to public ? Not very cost efficent or effective approach any way you look at it. I deal only with numbers because that is all that I can relate to.I have yet to hear of names for the children. Makes me think a litter of puppies, no names, no connection to being human beings.Public society loses on this one. My feelings are that many will suffer becuse of a special eight. No win-win anywhere to be found. One last thought……Should or would every parent(s) sctutinizing of a acceptable turnkey safe house be a requirement for each and every parent/family prior to allowing them to bring home child(ren). Right on that street that situation may comeup in the near future. Thank you for any comments.
Comment by Bud — March 17, 2009 @ 2:38 am
[...] So whatever happened with that whole Angels In Waiting thing I wrote about last week? [...]
Pingback by GlossLip » Two Octuplets Go Home: Press Goes Totally Insane — March 18, 2009 @ 10:15 am
Hi,
Upon reading this post again I don’t know if you are aware of the nature of Angels in Waiting. First, a non-profit corporation was set up in 2005 then the 501c was granted advanced ruling (as a charity)in Oct. 2007.
They do NOT pay for the care of at risk children. Their soul purpose is to recruit nurses to become In Home Health Care providers for medically at risk children in foster care. They also do seminars on “cuddling” and such, do scrappbooking pages for foster children, give little books to foster children.
Simply put, there are little babies who are terribly ill, many born drug babies, who are either in the hospital or in group homes, the tab being picked up by Medical, CPS has control over these babies because they have been taken away from the parents. In SOME cases, those babies are released to nurses who can care for them cheaper and in a loving home environment in their homes. They are PAID to do this by the State of California. Linda Conforti herself took in a little boy Sammy under these conditions. She took care of him in her home as a nurse and received a check from the state for her services. She then adopted him, but he still qualifies for SSI and state aide as well as a monthly check to her as an adoptive parent. When Linda found out about this opportunity for nurses she thought it was so wonderful she set up her non-profit/charity to recruit other nurses to do the same. (not to adopt, but just to care for them) There is no need for a huge budget for this because again, she is not paying for the care of any children, the STATE is paying them. She does hold a California Nurse Educator license and so she uses that license to help train nurses how to take care of these kids and also to RECRUIT nurses to do this.
But they are PAID by Medical. The charity in fact pays Linda for her services to recruit them! Look at this Global Giving page she has:
https://www.globalgiving.com/pr/2500/proj2450a.html
Do you see what the monies go for?
$10 – Will provide 35 brochures to recruit “Nurses As Foster Parents”.
$25 – Will Pay for gas to pick up an abused child from the E.R.
$50 – Will pay for bandages and over the counter medication.
$100 – Will recruit one Nurse for Two Medically Fragile fostercare Infants/ children.
So she takes in money through her charity and then is able to pay herself and cover the costs for what she does.
In the case of the octuplets, AIW went way out of the scope of their normal operations. According to them, their intention was to keep the children out of foster care-being taken away from Nadya, by providing the services THEY said she needed in order to keep them. It was AIW and NO ONE ELSE who put the $135,000/month price tag on this which included all sorts of care for the older children as well. They made these estimations SOLELY on what they were reading in the media without access to the medical records of the older children.
They were trying to get to Nadya to “offer” their services from day one. The problem is that NEVER did they have the money to do this themselves and NEVER was it a volunteer offer. It always was, we are trained in doing this, we will do it IF the private donations come in to pay us.
When they heard that Gloria Allred had filed a complaint with CPS against Nadya they saw it as an opportunity. So AIW contacted Allred directly and said Hey this is what we do, we have nurses (actually THEY don’t have them, it is simply they have trained nurses who take care of medically at risk children but again get PAID by the state)who take care of medically at risk children in the home.
Our “network of specialists” (who normally get paid by the State) will come in and do this IF the funds can be raised to pay us.
So in a nutshell, never was this a volunteer offer. Volunteer offers do NOT involve being paid! Since there has not been any financial disclosure of how much in donations they have received, 1)we don’t know who is getting paid although Conforti and one other nurse are the ones on duty at Nadya’s house.
Comment by Robin — March 18, 2009 @ 11:26 am
I agree with Bud on the safe gaurding of the home for these infants before they come home and how come people who give birth to one child doesn’t have to have those safegaurds in place when they bring their newborn home and have social services inspect the home beforehand. It’s like someone telling you how to live your life in a “free country” ! Has anyone bothered to step foot in their own social services department to see how many women and teens are in there recieving care and on medicaid for pregnancy and for their children? Nadya has alot less children than those people in the public health care department recieing government health care and insurance. Lay off of this woman already! What’s done is done!
Comment by Angie — March 18, 2009 @ 3:07 pm
[...] So whatever happened with that whole Angels In Waiting thing I wrote about last week? [...]
Pingback by Celebrity Blog | Babelogs | Celebrity Gossip » Blog Archive » Two Octuplets Go Home: Press Goes Totally Insane — March 18, 2009 @ 7:47 pm
Take the kids away and lock Nadya up. Then, find good homes for the children (all 8)…there are plenty of responsible adults who want to adopt. Let Nadya out only after she has been sterilized. She’s no more mentally disturbed than a lot of people walking around loose…it’s just that her way of acting out is placing helpless babies at risk and is creating a tremendous burden for the responsible taxpaying public. She needs to be stopped.
Comment by jakeinnola — March 24, 2009 @ 9:33 am
[...] View original post here: Nadya Suleman Accepts Offer Of Help From Angels In Waiting; But Just Who Is More In Need Of It? [...]
Pingback by Nadya Suleman Accepts Offer Of Help From Angels In Waiting; But Just Who Is More In Need Of It? | Record Income — April 2, 2009 @ 3:37 am