Doctor ‘implanted 12 embryos’ in octuplet pregnancy case

A FERTILITY doctor implanted a dozen embryos in the pregnancy that gave Nadya Suleman octuplets, a California state attorney said, a number that another doctor said was unheard of and surpasses Suleman’s assertion that only six embryos were implanted.

Dr Michael Kamrava’s action endangered the mother and violated national standards of care, deputy attorney general Judith Alvarado said at the Medical Board of California’s hearing to consider revoking or suspending the Beverly Hills physician’s license.

Dr Kamrava “knew that a 12-embryo transfer was unsafe”, Alvarado said in her opening statement.

National guidelines issued by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine specify no more than two embryos are to be used in in vitro treatments for a healthy woman under 35.

Dr Victor Y Fujimoto, an expert witness for the medical board and director of the University of California San Francisco In Vitro Fertilisation Programme, testified that 12 embryos or blastocysts being transferred into a uterus is unheard of.

“I cannot imagine any colleague of mine transferring that many embryos,” said Dr Fujimoto, adding he’d never transferred that many himself.

High-order multiple births can result in long-term developmental delays, cerebral palsy and various life-threatening ailments.

Fertility specialists have criticised Dr Kamrava’s methods, saying he endangered Suleman’s health and the long-term health of the babies. Suleman’s babies, born nine weeks premature in January 2009, are the world’s longest-surviving set of octuplets.

Suleman, a 33-year-old divorced single mother-of-14, said Dr Kamrava implanted her with six embryos for each of her six pregnancies and two of them split when she had octuplets.

Dr Fujimoto said Suleman, actually requested 12 blastocysts to be transferred into her, but it is the physician’s job to make a decision not to transfer embryos, even when a patient insists.