About Stinkin' Time!

When the Octo-Mom fiasco hit the news, I had just had a miscarriage. The insanity of the whole situation was especially upsetting to me at the time. I saw her as being extremely selfish. I had already gone through a stage in my years of infertility where I felt like anyone having more than two kids had "filled their quota" and needed to give the rest of us a chance. (What can I say? I was a little insane during part of my infertility.)

Anyway, the point of my rambling is that I took the whole Octo-Mom thing VERY personally.

Not only was I mad at her, but I was mad at the crazy doctor who allowed her to even get into that situation.

Looks like he's finally gotten himself in trouble for it. (The article is really long, so I'll edit it down a little, and include my own comments throughout. The bold highlights were added by me. You can read the whole article here.)

LOS ANGELES — California medical officials revoked the license of the fertility doctor who helped "Octomom" Nadya Suleman become the mother of 14 children through repeated in vitro treatments, according to a decision made public Wednesday.

The Medical Board of California said it was necessary to revoke Dr. Michael Kamrava's license to protect the public. The revocation takes effect July 1.

The Beverly Hills fertility doctor has acknowledged implanting 12 embryos into Suleman prior to the pregnancy that produced her octuplets. It was six times the norm for a woman her age.

That was a mistake, according to the board.

Uhhhhh.... REALLY??

In practice, fertility doctors avoid mega-births, as high number multiple births are sometimes called, because the process can put the mother at risk for serious complications and death. Crowding in a mother's uterus could also result in premature birth, cerebral palsy, developmental delays or other health problems for the babies.

Did you catch that? Too many babies in the womb at a time can kill, or seriously injure mother and babies.

With a tearful apology, Kamrava testified at his hearing last year that he implanted Suleman with 12 embryos because she consented to undergoing fetal reduction if too many of the babies became viable.

Kamrava said that months passed after the treatment, and he never heard from her, despite efforts to contact her. He says he only heard from Suleman again after the babies were born.

The "tearful apology" really gets me here.

I've known quite a few women who've been through in-vitro, and I believe the standard is 2 embryos at a time, MAYBE three under special circumstances. He saw nothing wrong with implanting TWELVE embryos in a woman?? Let alone a single mom who already had six kids at home! How many did he think were going to work???

The state also found that Kamrava was negligent in the care of two other patients — a major factor in the decision to revoke his license.

Oh dear. Brace yourselves.

Kamrava was found to have implanted seven embryos in a 48-year-old patient, resulting in quadruplets. One fetus died before birth.

Kamrava said at his hearing that he recommended four embryos be implanted, but he implanted seven because the patient insisted.

So, what we're seeing here is either a guy who doesn't like to accept responsibility for his actions, or a big weenie who gets bullied into unethical behavior by his patients. Which do YOU think is more likely?

In another case, Kamrava went ahead with in vitro fertilization after tests detected atypical cells, which can indicate the 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.

I've had a pap smear come back with atypical cells before. It was taken VERY seriously because that can be a sign of cancer. While in my case, it was fine, in her case, it was severe! Instead of taking it as seriously as he should have, sending her to a specialist for further testing, he went ahead with the procedure anyway. And WHY didn't he send her to that specialist?

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.

Excuse me???

Okay, when my sister died and I was distracted by all of that, I forgot to pay some bills. But this guy, in the media spotlight over another of his stupid decisions, NEGLECTED to check on a patient over a life or death situation!! That's just a teeny tiny bit more important than forgetting to pay the electric bill, you know what I mean?

In February, a judge recommended the board put Kamrava on five years of probation, but the ultimate licensing decision belonged to the board. Citing negative publicity surrounding Suleman's case, the judge had said it was unlikely Kamrava would make similar mistakes again.

Seriously? I could see putting him on probation for having an unfortunate situation from implanting maybe 4 embryos. But we're talking about multiple times, with excessive numbers and complete lack of ethical behavior.

The board "adamantly" disagreed with that assessment, saying the doctor had already used bad press as an excuse for failing to care properly for the fertility patient who should have been referred to a cancer specialist.

"Accordingly, the board is not persuaded that relying on the public or the media to fulfill or supplement the board's public protection role is sound policy," the decision reads.

Good for them! Thank goodness they had the sense to revoke his license. It's just too bad it took them so long. How many women could he have harmed in the last couple years?