Octomom's Fertility Doctor Wants to Treat Patients

The doctor whose fertility treatments gave "Octomom" Nadya Suleman her octuplets and six other children wants to practice medicine again and has asked the courts to reconsider the state medical board's decision to revoke his license.

Dr. Michael Kamrava blames what he considers to be negative media coverage for the Medical Board of California's decision to revoke his license, saying he was vilified in a manner that was not justified by the evidence.

"Dr. Kamrava performed a perfectly legal procedure but the public (or at least the media) thought that the procedure was repugnant," the filing said.

The Beverly Hills fertility doctor's license to practice medicine has been revoked since July 1.

In their decision, the medical board said they revoked Kamrava's license to practice medicine after finding him grossly negligent in the care of three patients, including Suleman.

The court can ask the medical board to reconsider its decision, among other outcomes - but the ultimate licensing authority lies with the board. By law, Kamrava can petition for reinstatement three years after revocation takes effect.

Despite Suleman's early claims to media that she'd been implanted with 6 embryos and two of them split, resulting in her octuplets, medical records discussed during Kamrava's licensing hearing revealed that she'd been implanted with 12 embryos.

Suleman is not named in the filings, and is only identified by the initials "N.S."
However, "N.S." is described as a mother of octuplets and she has publicly identified Kamrava as her fertility doctor.

Kamrava tearfully apologized for implanting so many embryos into Suleman during the hearings last year, saying he only did so because she was insistent and he felt bound to do it.

The number was six times the norm for a woman her age and the resulting pregnancy could have been deadly or damaging for Suleman, her babies or both.

Crowding in a mother's uterus could endanger the mother and result in premature birth, cerebral palsy, developmental delays or other health problems for the babies.

The birth of Suleman's octuplets broke a world record for longest-surviving octuplets.

The babies - whose birth weights ranged from 1 pound, 8 ounces to 3 pounds, 4 ounces - spent their first weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center.

She has said that her octuplets are healthy.

In addition to the octuplets, Suleman has 6 other children who were conceived through Kamrava's in vitro treatments.

Kamrava was found negligent in the care of two other patients.

He implanted seven embryos in a 48-year-old patient, resulting in quadruplets, but one fetus died before birth. During the licensing hearing, an expert witness for the state called that number of embryos "an extreme departure" from standards of care earlier.

In another case, Kamrava went ahead with in vitro fertilization after tests detected atypical cells, which can indicate presence of a tumor. The patient was later diagnosed with stage-three cancer and had to have her uterus and ovaries removed before undergoing chemotherapy.

Kamrava said he should have referred her to a gynecological oncologist but simultaneous to her treatment, news broke about Suleman's octuplets, and he became too distracted to follow up the patient's care the way he would have liked.