Two of the world’s longest-surviving octuplets have gone home from hospital, greeted by a crush of photographers, neighbours and curious onlookers gathered in a cul-de-sac where the mother will raise her 14 children.

The mother of the octuplets born in the US last month apparently has bigger worries than taking care of her 14 children, it was revealed today.

The woman who gave birth to octuplets this week conceived all 14 of her children through in vitro fertilisation, is not married and has been obsessed with having children since she was a teenager, her mother said.

The woman who gave birth to octuplets this week has six other children and never expected to have eight more when she took fertility treatment, her mother said today.

A Los Angeles hospital van dropped off a paraplegic man on Skid Row, allegedly leaving him crawling in the street with nothing more than a soiled gown and a broken colostomy bag, police said.