This is truly sad, it was reported today that an out-of-work widower, abandoned nine of his children at a hospital under Nebraska’s new safe haven law. He said he was overwhelmed over the death of his wife and just “fell apart.”“I hope they know I love them,” Gary Staton told KETV. “I hope their future is better without me around them.”

The unique law allows caregivers to abandon babies and teenagers alike at hospitals without fear of prosecution. Originally intended to protect infants, it was expanded in a legislative compromise to protect any “child.” Some have interpreted that to mean anyone under 19.

Staton anonymously left the five boys and four girls — ages 1 to 17 — at Creighton University Medical Center’s emergency room on Wednesday night. He has a 10th child, a daughter who is 18 and was not dropped off.

Staton said his wife died early last year, shortly after delivering their youngest child. He said he quit his job because of his family responsibilities but couldn’t pay rent or utilities or take care of his kids.

“I was with her for 17 years, and then she was gone,” he said of his late wife. “What was I going to do? We raised them together. I didn’t think I could do it alone. I fell apart. I couldn’t take care of them.”

This case is particularly dramatic, but there have been others. Last week, a 13-year-old girl was left at a hospital. The week before that, two boys ages 11 and 15 were abandoned, USA Today reports.

“This was never the intent of the bill,” the state senator who wrote the bill told USA Today, adding that the law needs to be fixed. “We really opened a can of worms.”

Hopefully, social services will get the family counseling, and financial support. It sounds like to me the poor man is having a nervous breakdown. Poor kids, it has been reported that family members have come forward to take care of the kids. Just a very very sad story.