Octuplet mom filed 2 workers' comp claims

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Nadya Suleman, the Whittier, Calif., mother of newly born octuplets, has filed at least two claims for workers' compensation, state records indicate.

State documents show Suleman reported an injury in 1999 while working as a psychiatric technician at a state hospital, and another in 2001 after a car accident that happened while she was en route to medical treatment, The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

Suleman, whose multiple birth has drawn criticism from medical ethicists concerned, in part, that she is unemployed and already had six other children, reported that her 1999 injury happened while she was a psychiatric technician at Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, Calif. In 2001, Suleman filed a second claim with the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board for "injury to neck, back and shoulders from auto accident on commute for medical treatment," the Times reported.

State records also show that the state filed a petition last year to force Suleman to attend a medical exam with "petition to terminate liability for temporary disability indemnity."

Suleman's babies, who Tuesday were still in the hospital with their mother, were breathing on their own, doctors told the Washington Post, but were expected to stay in the hospital for weeks.