(Reuters) - The fertility doctor who helped California’s so-called Octomom have her eight babies had his license revoked on Wednesday by the state’s medical board.
The board said in a report that Beverly Hills doctor Michael Kamrava committed gross negligence by making “an excessive number of embryo transfers” into Nadya Suleman, now 35, who gave birth to octuplets in 2009 and became a celebrity media sensation.
The Los Angeles-area woman’s delivery of the eight children marked only the second time a full set of octuplets had been born in the United States.
But when it was revealed that Suleman was an unemployed single mother with six other children, the U.S. media turned sour and she was dubbed Octomom.
The California medical board said Kamrava, who had implanted 12 embryos into Suleman with eight of them resulting in live births, made an “extreme” departure from the standard of care.
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine recommends that in patients under the age of 35, no more than two embryos should be transferred, but the group has said those guidelines depend on various circumstances.
Kamrava said at a hearing last year that he was complying with Suleman’s wishes, and out of concern that her fertility could be impaired and that she needed a large number of embryos to increase the chances of having a baby.
He also gave her fertility treatment for her previous six children.
The California medical board on Wednesday said it was also unhappy with Kamrava’s treatment of two other patients.
One was a 48 year-old woman whom Kamrava implanted with seven embryos, using eggs donated by her daughter.
“This is not a one-patient case or a two-patient case; it is a three patient case, and the established causes of discipline include repeated negligent acts (all three patients), gross negligence (two patients) and inadequate records (one patient),” the board said in its report.
The state medical board’s revocation of Kamrava’s license becomes effective on July 1. An attorney for Kamrava could not be reached for comment.
Suleman appeared in several talk shows and television specials about her life with her 14 children.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Jill Serjeant)
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