Posted on 05/10/2005 1:27:46 PM PDT by Wolfie
Mother of sextuplets faces loss of Medicaid-funded nurse
WYOMISSING - A Berks County woman with year-old sextuplets and 4-year-old twins will appeal for continued nursing help from Medicaid beyond a one-year cutoff.
Kate Gosselin, whose husband has a 90-minute commute to a state job in Harrisburg, said she cannot safely manage eight small children.
The sextuplets - only the second set born in Pennsylvania and among fewer than 30 sets born worldwide - arrived 8 weeks premature but are thriving as they near their first birthday Tuesday.
"I will shout from the highest mountain that these are my children and I love them and I need help," Kate Gosselin said.
While the Gosselins appreciate the volunteers who streamed through their home in the early months, the children's routines improved with the arrival of Angie Krall, a licensed practical nurse who spends 30 hours a week with the family. Medicaid provides the temporary nursing support for premature babies, Gosselin said.
"She's fine-tuned and I trust her," Kate Gosselin said of the nurse, Angie Krall. "She's as good as a parent in this home."
The family cannot afford to pay Krall on their own, she said. Jonathan Gosselin, an information technology specialist who now works in the Gov.'s Office, was unemployed for much of last year.
Kate Gosselin said she feels society has a responsibility to help with the children, since modern medicine promotes the use of fertility drugs, which can lead to multiple births.
She has talked by telephone with Bobbi McCaughey, the Carlisle, Iowa, woman who delivered the world's only set of surviving septuplets in November 1997. McCaughey named the loss of privacy and the oversight of volunteers as among her biggest difficulties, Kate Gosselin said.
On the bright side, the Gosselin babies seem to have skirted the health problems that can plague premature babies and multiples. Each now weighs between 18 and 22 pounds.
"I look at six healthy babies and I feel a lot better, because it could be a lot, lot worse," Jonathan Gosselin said.
She was PRESSURED, you patriarchal oppressor. We as a society MADE her take those shots.
Sheesh. The insensitivity around here! ;)
Kate Gosselin said she feels society has a responsibility to help with the children, since modern medicine promotes the use of fertility drugs, which can lead to multiple births.<<<
Then sue Modern Medicine beatch. I aint paying for someone else's wide open legs.
Pregnancies with multiples can be selectively aborted, leaving one or two.
Lots of folks that have taken fertility drugs do end up getting rid of a couple of "fetuses".
I can safely and truthfully assert that I personally had nothing to do with any fun that may have been had while the babies were in the making.
I won't be bashing you.
Whatever happened to accepting the fact that you cannot have children and adopting instead, or just owning pets or becoming a child care professional or something.
I guess it went out of style.
High order multiple births are a choice when using fertility drugs, not an uncontrollable result. It's nearly always a case of people trying to save money by proceeding with insemination (in the case of non-IVF cycles), or by transferring too many embryos back in (in the case of IVF cycles). People decide they'd rather risk having a bunch of babies, than risk having none and having to pay for another cycle. Insurance companies could go a long way in eliminating this problem (if government regulators didn't stop them, which they probably would, or maybe have already).
If insurers who cover fertility treatment would set strict limits on number of follicles for IUI, or number of embryos transferred for IVF, and flatly deny coverage to either the mother or the babies if these limits are violated, more people would figure out that this is a really stupid gamble they're taking. Even insurers who don't cover the fertility treatments are still getting hit with huge bills for the mothers' complicated pregnancies and the babies inevitable health problems.
The technology is already there to prevent multiples, and especially high order multiples. But as long as the people taking the gambles aren't the ones doing the bulk of the paying for bad results, the problem will continue.
Once a high order multiple pregnancy is established, selective reductions often make a lot of medical sense, both for the mother and especially for the babies -- the latter being very likely to all get miscarried or at least severely disabled by a combination of crowding and prematurity, if there is no reduction. However, selective reductions are not without risk (sometimes causing the miscarriage of any remaining fetuses), and going about fertility treatments in a way likely to cause high order multiples, thinking that you can always get rid of the extras if there are extras, does NOT make medical sense. It is very easy to do fertility treatments with no risk of high order multiples, but it costs more.
Since when?
That is a serious question.
Who proposed it? When did it pass? What bureaucrat implemented it?
In general I'm sympathetic to her appeal except for the fact she was using drugs.
Why was she taking fertility drugs when she had already had twins?
Feel free to send her a monthly check...
I guess they worked so well the first time, she figured why the heck not? The article said her husband was unemployed for much of last year. I wonder if she was dosing while her hubby was out of a job. That would be just peachy.
she wants society to help raise her kids, maybe she should auction a few off to members of society that can afford them and use the proceeds to care for the rest..nothing like taking a little personal responsibility...
The current 'all American way' - reward stupidity.
Whatever happened to accepting the fact that you cannot have children and adopting instead, or just owning pets or becoming a child care professional or something.
No bashing from me here
Sue the pharmaceutical company that made the drugs, they've got money, the greedy capitalist bastards!
I agree. I believe that if you cannot bear children, it means you are supposed to adopt. Stop the fertility nonsense. And don't give me the "I don't have 20K to adopt", fertility drugs cost that and more. This lady got greedy and now expects us to clean up her mess. Those poor children play second fiddle to the needs of their mother.
Read the story again, it may lower your blood pressure, or maybe not. BTW, does your wife work?
You got that right! So many people say to me "I wish I had twins" , I tell them "no you don't".
By the way, since alcohol is promoted by society, where's my government ration? No one told her to put that many embryos back, or to have sex when 6 follicles were seen. A respectable fertility doctor would skip that cycle.
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