Odd News

Lawyer: Octuplets' mom implanted with 12 embryos

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-10-19 09:56

Before the octuplets' birth, the unemployed Suleman and her six children lived with her mother, relying on food stamps, school loans and disability payments for her two autistic children to get by.

More recently, Suleman has tried to use her notoriety for income through the tabloid media, but she struggles to pay rent and is facing a $450,000 balloon payment on her La Habra home.

Unlike Suleman, Kamrava has kept a low profile and declined repeated requests for interview from The Associated Press. In July, he made a rare appearance in an ABC "Nightline" interview, defending his treatment of Suleman by saying it was "done the right way."

Though other doctors in the field say they're not impressed with it, Kamrava has long touted a method of in vitro fertilization that implants an embryo _ or sometimes sperm with an unfertilized egg - directly into the uterine lining.

Kamrava suffered a blow to his prestige last year when he was kicked out of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, but the nonprofit group does not have legal authority to prevent him from practicing medicine.

The board's accusation says Kamrava was also negligent in his treatment of two other patients.

He is accused of implanting seven embryos in a 48-year-old patient, resulting in quadruplets, but one fetus died before birth.

Fujimoto called the number of blastocysts implanted "an extreme departure" from standards of care.

In another case, Fujimoto said that Kamrava went ahead with in vitro fertilization instead of referring his patient with a history of cancer to a specialist after tests detected atypical cells, which can indicate presence of a tumor.

The patient was later diagnosed with stage-three cancer by another doctor and had to undergo removal of her uterus and ovaries before undergoing chemotherapy.