Another Blow : Cancer forced the homeless woman to put her daughter into foster care. The county, bound by state law, is suing to recover costs; officials admit it’s a waste of time.

The county’s aggressive efforts to crack down on “deadbeat parents” who owe child support have turned up an unlikely target in Kim Polaski.

She has been homeless for the past two years. Three months ago, a malignant tumor the size of an orange was removed from her left knee. Now, her doctors say, the cancer has spread to her lungs.

Polaski’s fight for life has become even more complicated. She must now contend with a lawsuit seeking child support payments for a 22-month-old daughter she gave up for temporary foster care six months ago because of her illness.

To Orange County officials coping with 120,000 cases of delinquent child support, the lawsuit is all part of getting money owed for the care of Polaski’s child. It will be up to a judge, they say, not the county, to consider Polaski’s situation and decide what to do.

“Is this a waste of time?” said Jan C. Sturla of the district attorney’s Family Support Division, which filed the lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court. “Of course it is. But that’s the law.”

Sturla said the lawsuit may not produce any reimbursement. However, state law does not give the county any choice, he said.

But to Polaski, 30, who lives at My Father’s House, a Santa Ana shelter for homeless single and unwed mothers, the county’s action makes no sense.

She says she’s been out of work since 1993. Polaski says she has drifted from one shelter to another after the woman who raised her threw Polaski out of her Fountain Valley home after Polaski became pregnant. She has no family in the area.

Polaski, who has not given up permanent custody of her child, hopes to be reunited with her daughter when she becomes well enough. She is not married to the child’s father, whom she describes as a salesman from Italy who constantly travels.

“It’s awful. I think it’s tacky on their part to put more burden on me at this time that I’m fighting for my life,” she said. “I don’t have any income. What could they possibly get from me?”

Polaski’s doctors and others said that pursuing payments from a homeless mother who may be dying of cancer is mean and unfair.

“This is terrible,” said Lawrence Menendez, one of the surgeons who operated on Polaski’s knee earlier this year at the USC University Hospital in Los Angeles. “She has a potentially fatal disease and has enough worries fighting for her life.”

Patients diagnosed with lung cancer have between 30% to 60% chance of survival, Menendez said.

Dr. Hector Fernandez, an oncologist handling Polaski’s chemotherapy treatment at his Tustin clinic, said Polaski’s medical bills have reached more than $100,000.

Medi-Cal pays for the medical expenses, Fernandez said. Each chemotherapy session costs from $5,000 to $10,000.

“We should crack down on parents who don’t pay child support,” Fernandez said. “But here, you have a homeless individual whose medical bills the government is paying. It’s so ridiculous.”

Gene Howard, director of children’s services of the county Social Services Agency, said that parents such as Polaski may voluntarily place their children in foster care up to six months because of medical emergencies.

However, a majority of the 2,500 children in county-funded foster or group homes were removed from their homes because of parental abuse or neglect, he said.

Howard said that whether the children were voluntarily or forcibly placed in foster homes, “we always pursue reimbursement from families.” A judge may decide to waive the payments if the parents can show financial hardship, he said.

Because of privacy requirements, Howard said he could not provide details about Polaski’s case.

Polaski said that deciding to place her daughter in foster care was painful, “but I had to find a place safe for her.”

Her daughter is under the care of a Laguna Hills family, she said, and comes to visit her once a week.

“She’s in a good home and gets a lot of attention,” Polaski said. “She brings me flowers, and says, ‘Hi, Mommy’ when she sees me. I miss her so much.” Polaski is scheduled to regain custody of her daughter next month. They will live in the homeless shelter, which also houses children.

In the county lawsuit, Polaski is being asked to reimburse the county’s expenses for child support and health care from December, 1994, when long-term foster care began, to the present. The district attorney has not specified how much it wants Polaski to pay, but foster care costs range from $300 to $3,000 a month, depending on the level of care, authorities said.

Copies of the complaints were served to Polaski on March 23, and she has 30 days to answer. She says she has no lawyer.

Sturla, the deputy district attorney, said that at the hearing, Polaski will be required to provide an income and expense statement, and copies of her latest income tax returns. A date has not been set for the hearing.

“There will be a judgment against her,” Sturla said. “That’s state law. (But) whether the amount is reserved (paid at a later date) will be based upon the income information at the trial.”

The looming legal battle with the county is just the latest of a series of misfortunes that Polaski says have beset her for the past few years.

When Polaski became pregnant, she moved in with friends, then lived in motels and homeless shelters across the county, subsisting on welfare checks.

In June, 1993, she gave birth to her daughter, Brianna Jacqueline, while staying at a shelter for pregnant, unmarried women in Los Alamitos.

She never considered giving up her child for adoption, she said. In fact, while she was pregnant, she said she intentionally did not see a doctor for the swelling on her knee because “I did not want to jeopardize my pregnancy.”

It was only after moving to My Father’s House last year that she finally sought medical help. Now, although her blond hair has fallen out because of continuing chemotherapy, and she walks with crutches, Polaski says she’s optimistic.

The thought that she will be reunited with her daughter keeps her going, she said.

“Whenever I see her, I feel good again,” Polaski said. “She really picks me up.”