Octuplets mother defends her fertility doctor following Calif. medical board license probe

Octuplets mother defends accused fertility doctor

LOS ANGELES — Octuplets mother Nadya Suleman on Tuesday defended the fertility doctor who helped her conceive 14 children, saying in a video posted to RadarOnline.com that he did “absolutely nothing wrong.”

The California Medical Board on Monday accused Suleman’s Beverly Hills fertility doctor, Michael Kamrava, of gross negligence in three instances: transferring too many embryos, repeatedly transferring fresh embryos when frozen ones were available and failing to refer her for a mental health evaluation.

The board could revoke or suspend his license.

Suleman, who already had six other children, gave birth to the world’s longest-living set of octuplets on Jan. 26. She has said she underwent the in vitro treatment that bore octuplets because she didn’t want her frozen embryos to go to waste.

But the medical board alleges that Kamrava never used frozen embryos in any of her pregnancies, putting her health at increased risk.

Kamrava’s lawyer, Peter Osinoff, said Monday that Suleman requested fresh embryos be used to improve her chances of success in each pregnancy. He said Tuesday he could not comment further on the case.

Suleman refuted those allegations in the video Tuesday saying that Kamrava told her he transferred whatever was left of the frozen embryos.

Seeming to have second thoughts, Suleman added she may have signed papers she hadn’t read.

“Maybe that was my negligence,” she said.

Though Suleman has also pledged to stop having children, she seemed to joke with Radar that Kamrava losing his license would curb her ability to have more babies.

“What am I going to do if I ever in the future want to go back?” she said with a laugh. “Really, what am I going to do?”

Suleman has said she earns money for her children through her exposure in tabloid media. It’s unclear whether she received payment for RadarOnline’s video Tuesday. Queries to the editor were not immediately returned.

At one point Suleman had a secret, exclusive deal with the Web site to document her and her babies in exchange for an undisclosed sum. The deal became public when state labor authorities cited the Web site for videotaping the babies too late in the day and for too many hours.

Kamrava is also accused of giving Suleman too much of a hormone while stimulating in vitro fertilization, poor record keeping and failing to recognize that Suleman’s conduct was placing her offspring at risk.

Kamrava’s attorney said Monday that the doctor wants to continue practicing medicine.