Fertility Doctor

The Beverly Hills fertility doctor who helped Nadya Suleman give birth to 14 children, including octuplets, has been accused by the California Medical Board of repeated gross negligence. Both Suleman and Dr. Michael Kamrava made international headlines last January, after the Southern California woman gave birth to only the second set of octuplets ever delivered in the United States. Her babies, who will turn 1 on Jan. 28, are the longest-surviving set. Suleman is a single mother who was unemployed and living with her parents.

At a hearing Thursday, a California deputy attorney general urged the Medical Board of California to revoke the medical license of the Beverly Hills fertility doctor who assisted Nadya Suleman in conceiving octuplets. "Revocation is proper. It's the only way to ensure public protection," Deputy Atty. Gen. Judith T. Alvarado said. Dr. Michael Kamrava's medical license could be revoked if it is determined that he was grossly negligent in his treatment of Suleman and two other female patients: a 48-year-old who suffered complications after she became pregnant with quadruplets and a 42-year-old diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer after receiving fertility treatments.

At a hearing Thursday, a California deputy attorney general urged the Medical Board of California to revoke the medical license of the Beverly Hills fertility doctor who assisted Nadya Suleman in conceiving octuplets. "Revocation is proper. It's the only way to ensure public protection," Deputy Atty. Gen. Judith T. Alvarado said. Dr. Michael Kamrava's medical license could be revoked if it is determined that he was grossly negligent in his treatment of Suleman and two other female patients: a 48-year-old who suffered complications after she became pregnant with quadruplets and a 42-year-old diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer after receiving fertility treatments.

According to Resolve, the National Infertility Assn., one in eight U.S. couples of child-bearing age is diagnosed with infertility. Two long years ago, my husband and I unfortunately found ourselves in this category. It's been a heartbreaking journey ever since. We still don't have any children to show for our efforts, but we remain hopeful that we'll eventually have the family we've always wanted. I don't talk about it much, because to retell it is to relive it, and this is hard enough to go through once.

Even when riding high and at the peak of his profession, Sergio C. Stone says, he kept a low public profile. "No one knew I existed," he says softly. How ironic that now sounds. How long ago those halcyon days must seem. In real time, it was as recent as three years ago that Stone was doing the closest thing on Earth to God's work: as one of the partners in UC Irvine's Center for Reproductive Health, he was a surgeon who helped infertile couples have babies.

The Beverly Hills fertility doctor who assisted Nadya Suleman in conceiving octuplets and six previous children repeatedly failed to screen her for mental health issues and to limit the number of embryos she had implanted, an expert witness testified Monday at a medical board hearing in Los Angeles. Dr. Michael Kamrava implanted Suleman with a dozen embryos before she conceived octuplets, an expert said at the hearing ? twice the number of embryos Suleman has said in the past. Kamrava could have his medical license revoked if it is determined that he was grossly negligent in his treatment of Suleman and two other female patients: a 48-year-old who suffered complications after she became pregnant with quadruplets and a 42 year-old diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer after receiving fertility treatments.

Attorneys for plaintiffs in the UC Irvine fertility scandal are fuming at Dr. Ricardo H. Asch's failure to show up for Monday's scheduled deposition in nearly a dozen lawsuits stemming from the alleged egg-stealing scheme. Asch's attorneys argued in court papers last week that the fertility specialist should not be required to appear for a deposition in Orange County because he now is living in Mexico City.

The Beverly Hills fertility doctor who assisted Nadya Suleman in conceiving octuplets should be placed on five years' probation rather than have his license revoked, a judge has recommended to the Medical Board of California. The recommendation, released Monday, came more than a year after medical board officials first moved to revoke the medical license of Dr. Michael Kamrava . The state medical board is expected to consider the judge's proposal when it meets Thursday in Burlingame, according to Jennifer Simoes, a board spokeswoman.

A fertility doctor convicted of fraud for using his own sperm to impregnate unwitting patients, producing perhaps 70 children, has begun serving his five-year prison sentence. Cecil Jacobson entered the federal prison camp at Florence last week, almost two years after he was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., for deceiving patients who sought his help.

The walls of his Westwood Village fertility clinic are lined with happy snapshots of moms and dads proudly showing off their little bundles of joy. But there was little jubilation Monday for Dr. Vicken Sahakian as he acknowledged that one of his patients had become the world's oldest new mother. "Congratulations? It was unintentionally successful," Sahakian said. "She lied to me. She falsified records, knowing my cutoff for single women is 55....

California's medical board Wednesday rejected a judge's recommendation that the Beverly Hills fertility doctor who assisted Nadya Suleman in conceiving octuplets be allowed to keep his medical license. Dr. Michael Kamrava has been accused of gross negligence and incompetence in his treatment of Suleman, 35, of La Habra, and two other female patients: a 48-year-old who suffered complications after she became pregnant with quadruplets and a 42-year-old diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer after receiving fertility treatments.

The Beverly Hills fertility doctor who assisted Nadya Suleman in conceiving octuplets should be placed on five years' probation rather than have his license revoked, a judge has recommended to the Medical Board of California. The recommendation, released Monday, came more than a year after medical board officials first moved to revoke the medical license of Dr. Michael Kamrava . The state medical board is expected to consider the judge's proposal when it meets Thursday in Burlingame, according to Jennifer Simoes, a board spokeswoman.

The Beverly Hills fertility doctor who assisted Nadya Suleman in conceiving octuplets was cited by federal regulators for using an experimental procedure without her informed consent, according to testimony Thursday at a state medical board hearing in downtown Los Angeles. Dr. Michael Kamrava's medical license could be revoked if it is determined that he was grossly negligent in his treatment of Suleman and two other female patients: a 48-year-old who suffered complications after she became pregnant with quadruplets and a 42-year-old diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer after receiving fertility treatments.

The Beverly Hills fertility doctor who assisted Nadya Suleman in conceiving octuplets was wrong to implant her with a dozen embryos but mostly respected her wishes and "standard" procedure, a fellow fertility specialist testified Wednesday at a state medical board hearing. Dr. Michael Kamrava's medical license could be revoked if it is determined that he was grossly negligent in his treatment of Suleman and two other female patients: a 48-year-old who suffered complications after she became pregnant with quadruplets and a 42-year-old diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer after receiving fertility treatments.

The Beverly Hills fertility doctor who assisted Nadya Suleman in conceiving octuplets said he made a mistake by implanting her with a dozen embryos at her insistence and against his better judgment. "I'm sorry for what happened. When I look back at it, I wish I had never done it and it will never happen again," Dr. Michael Kamrava said Thursday, wiping away tears. "Do you feel that what you did was wrong?" asked his attorney, Henry Fenton. "At the time that I did it, I thought I did the right thing," said Kamrava, who testified before Administrative Law Judge Daniel Juarez in Los Angeles at the Medical Board of California hearing.

The Beverly Hills fertility doctor who assisted Nadya Suleman in conceiving octuplets and six previous children said during testimony Wednesday that his goal with each pregnancy was to produce a single baby and that Suleman agreed to reduce the number of fetuses if the treatment were to result in multiple births. "We don't really intentionally want to make it a multiple pregnancy ? our goal is a single term pregnancy," said Dr. Michael Kamrava. "However, this is not an exact science.

The UC Irvine fertility doctor arrested last month in Argentina after eluding authorities for five years did not appear for a court hearing Friday following his release on $10,000 bail, raising concerns among federal prosecutors that he has fled once again. U.S. Justice Department officials said the whereabouts of Dr. Jose P. Balmaceda, one of three doctors suspected in a fertility clinic scandal at UCI, is unknown and said they have asked Argentine authorities to search for him.

In private discussions with prosecutors, former UC Irvine fertility doctor Sergio C. Stone admitted that he and his two partners conspired to overbill insurance companies so that they could reap extra profits, according to court papers filed Thursday. Stone told prosecutors that he and other physicians at the now defunct Center for Reproductive Health would routinely charge fees for an assistant surgeon, even when none participated in an operation.

The Beverly Hills fertility doctor who assisted Nadya Suleman in conceiving octuplets and six previous children repeatedly failed to screen her for mental health issues and to limit the number of embryos she had implanted, an expert witness testified Monday at a medical board hearing in Los Angeles. Dr. Michael Kamrava implanted Suleman with a dozen embryos before she conceived octuplets, an expert said at the hearing ? twice the number of embryos Suleman has said in the past. Kamrava could have his medical license revoked if it is determined that he was grossly negligent in his treatment of Suleman and two other female patients: a 48-year-old who suffered complications after she became pregnant with quadruplets and a 42 year-old diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer after receiving fertility treatments.

The Beverly Hills fertility doctor who helped Nadya Suleman give birth to 14 children, including octuplets, has been accused by the California Medical Board of repeated gross negligence. Both Suleman and Dr. Michael Kamrava made international headlines last January, after the Southern California woman gave birth to only the second set of octuplets ever delivered in the United States. Her babies, who will turn 1 on Jan. 28, are the longest-surviving set. Suleman is a single mother who was unemployed and living with her parents.