Allred group offers octuplet mom help

WHITTIER, Calif. (KABC) -- There are questions about how octuplet mom Nadya Suleman is going to pay for the care of her 14 children. Now there's an offer of support, and it comes from attorney Gloria Allred, who runs a group called Angels In Waiting.

Everyone is talking about these children and wondering what will happen when they come home. Can anyone take proper care of 14 children, especially when some of them may have special needs? Well, some people believe they may have the answer.

"The clock is ticking, and we need to convey to her the magnitude the needs of these premature infants," said attorney Gloria Allred.

Gloria Allred believes she has the best plan to help Nadya Suleman's children. Thursday she held a news conference to announce it.

"Nadya does not appear to have a concrete plan for the future to meet the urgent and complicated needs of these medically fragile and premature infants," said Allred.

Allred says she's taken it upon herself to file a complaint with the Department of Children and Family Services to investigate whether the children might be endangered staying with their mother. She says the children will have medical and emotional needs that Suleman alone won't be able to handle. The group called Angels In Waiting wants to help.

"When these babies are released from the hospital, they are not out of the woods, so to speak," said Registered Nurse Linda West-Conforti, Angels In Waiting. "They have a potential for setbacks and complications."

West-Conforti is a pediatric nurse who says taking care of the children will involve 12 providers a day, at a cost of $135,000 a month.

"What we have are the care providers at hand, I have the occupational therapists set up, I have psychiatrists," said West-Conforti.

The plan would involve getting public donations, but no one is sure if they could raise that much money. In interviews, Nadya Suleman claims she can take care of her children, but she has $50,000 in school loans, and now it's come to light that the family home, owned by her mother, is in default. They are $23,000 behind on their payments.

"The alternative, in our opinion, will most likely be that the children will be taken by the Department of Children and Family Services and placed in foster care in order to protect them and meet their special needs," said Allred.

So far Suleman has not responded to this offer. According to TMZ.com, Suleman is now house-hunting and looking at home that's listed for $1.24 million. This particular home has four bedrooms and two and half bathrooms.

The Dept. of Children and Family Services would not comment specifically on Gloria Allred's complaint.

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