 | | Dr. Kamrava |
The fertility doctor of "Octomom" Nadya Suleman implanted too many
embryos in one patient, resulting in the death of a fetus, and failed to
refer another woman to a cancer specialist after finding cysts on her
ovaries, the state licensing board said.
The new allegations by the Medical Board of California bolster
its ongoing negligence case against Dr. Michael Kamrava.
The board said a 48-year-old patient identified only as "L.C."
was implanted with seven embryos in September 2008 -- several months
after the 33-year-old Suleman had embryos implanted.
Implanting more than two embryos in a patient over age 35 meant
Kamrava "placed L.C. at great risk for high-order gestation, which was
confirmed by a quadruplet pregnancy that ended with catastrophic
results," the filing said.
Kamrava is scheduled for an Oct. 18 hearing before the medical
board to determine if his license should be revoked or suspended. His
public relations representative David Langness and his lawyer Henry
Fenton said they could not comment on the open case.
Kamrava, whose office is in Beverly Hills, has declined repeated
interview requests from The Associated Press and other news
organizations. An interview given to "Nightline" on ABC was scheduled to
air Tuesday night.
In the interview, Kamrava said the Suleman fertility treatment
was "done the right way."
The California medical board has not disclosed the number of
embryos Suleman had implanted but said the number was far in excess of
recommendations and "beyond the reasonable judgment of any treating
physician."
Suleman has said six were implanted, and two of the embryos
split. Her pregnancy has been under scrutiny since she gave birth in
January 2009.
The latest allegations against Kamrava were noted by the board
when its case was updated on June 30.
The filing said four of the seven embryos implanted in "L.C."
became viable. She lost one during pregnancy and gave birth to triplets,
one of whom has profound developmental delays, the board said.
In another similarity to the Suleman case, Kamrava is accused of
failing to refer "L.C." to receive appropriate mental health counseling
prior to undergoing fertility treatments -- "omissions which constitute
an extreme departure from the standard of practice," according to the
filing.
Kamrava also was accused by the board of failing to refer another
patient identified as "H.L." for cancer screening, despite her history
of the disease and his discovery of cysts on her ovaries in an
ultrasound.
After draining fluid from the cysts and testing for cancerous
cells, Kamrava ruled out cancer on his own "rather than refer H.L. to a
specialist for further evaluation," according to the filing.
Kamrava continued with fertility treatments, performing an embryo
transfer for the woman in January 2009, but the pregnancy did not take,
the report states.
Afterward, the patient went to two more fertility specialists who
both recommended she undergo surgery to rule out cancer.
Following surgery in April 2009, "H.L." was diagnosed with
metastatic, stage III bilateral ovarian cancer and had to have her
uterus, cervix, ovaries and fallopian tubes removed, the report states.
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