Nadya Suleman, the woman who gave birth to octuplets last month, was apparently injured in a riot at a psychiatric hospital and got disability benefits from the state of California totaling nearly $168,000.

 

On the 18th of September 1999, the 33-year-old woman responded to an emergency alert when 20 patients rioted while she was on duty as a psychiatric technician at Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, California.

 

According to a document submitted last year to a state claims examiner, Suleman got struck on her back by a desk that was thrown by a patient while she was trying to hold down another patient. In her first TV interview she said that she received payments as part of a workers' compensation settlement stemming from injuries she suffered during the disturbance, which left her with chronic back pain. Her $168,000 worth disability benefits came after doctors who attended her concluded that she had suffered permanent damage to the lumbar area of her spine which could get worse if she took a job that involved "prolonged sitting, standing and walking."

 

The 2001 State Compensation Insurance Fund's liability to Nadya ended on the 28th of August 2008, right after she had become pregnant with octuplets by in-vitro fertilization.

 

In 2001, after the incident with the riot, while Suleman was leaving a doctor's office for treatment of the injury, her car was rear-ended and the woman hurt her neck, back and shoulders. She filed for another claim for workers' compensation, arguing that the accident would not have occurred if she had not been going for medical treatment for the earlier injury. So far it is unclear whether she received funds for that claim or not.