Octuplets-clinic doctor "secretive" according to desi British embryologist

[Saddle Bronc 124]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_...icle5721333.ece

Briton tells of ‘secretive’ octuplets doctor Michael Kamrava

British embryologist says she is shocked to find Michael Kamrava is still running clinic she walked out of 13 years ago

February 13, 2009

A British embryologist who worked for the doctor whose fertility treatment led to the birth of octuplets said yesterday that she was shocked to discover he was still running the clinic she walked out on 13 years ago.

Shantal Rajah, 51, told The Times that she left Michael Kamrava’s clinic in the United States after three weeks, such was her concern at his personal attitude. She said that she found his behaviour impossible, including the secretive way that he ran the West Coast IVF Clinic. She successfully sued him for back pay and damages, receiving a substantial sum in 2003.

Describing Dr Kamrava, 57, as “extremely difficult”, Dr Rajah said that he had misled her about the clinic to encourage her to move from Britain and had refused to listen to questions she raised about the way the clinic operated.

“The level of regulation I was used to just wasn’t there,” Dr Rajah said. “His practice was all a very secretive issue. He didn’t tell anyone what he was up to – he would do things that he said would work, but you didn’t get any sense of what he was doing or what was the outcome.

“I saw details emerge [of the clinic] and I thought of him – frankly I am shocked he’s still in business.”

Dr Kamrava was revealed on Monday as the man who gave IVF to Nadya Suleman, 33, for all of her 14 babies. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine said yesterday that it was investigating whether he followed guidelines by implanting six embryos into each of Ms Suleman’s six pregnancies, resulting in four single births, a set of twins and the octuplets. The Medical Board of California is also looking into the pregnancy.

Even twin and triplet pregnancies have considerably raised risks to health, including stillbirth, prematurity and cerebral palsy for the babies, and preeclampsia and death for their mothers. In bigger multiple pregnancies, these hazards grow almost exponentially.

Fertility experts and medical ethicists in the United States, who have been highly critical of the octuplets’ birth, said that no more than three embryos were considered appropriate for a woman of Ms Suleman’s age. British IVF clinics are generally forbidden from transferring more than two embryos at once, and they are encouraged to use only one.

Ms Suleman, who has a history of miscarriages and scarred Fallopian tubes, defended Dr Kamrava, describing her treatment as “very appropriate”.

Dr Kamrava, who has described himself as a medical pioneer, is known in Southern California for promoting techniques to improve pregnancy success rates, including placing newly created embryos in a capsule and cultivating them inside the ####### for a few days before transferring them to the uterus in hopes of achieving a pregnancy.

Federal records suggest that his clinic in Beverly Hills has a low success rate. Of the 61 procedures Dr Kamrava conducted in 2006, there have been only five pregnancies and two births.

In a research paper published this month, Dr Rajah, who works at the Brent-wood Fertility Centre at Essex Nuffield Hospital, questions whether a single embryo transfer policy is the best approach to IVF. She said yesterday that she nevertheless felt that the implanting of more than two embryos should not be carried out.

Describing her time with Dr Kamrava, she added: “I had to do the work – whatever he instructed I did. He did not have a modernised heated microscope [for cell study], which is what I was used to. But he really wasn’t receptive to changes to the way he did things. He had a very bad temper.”

Dr Rajah sued Dr Kamrava for her relocation expenses and back pay. Court papers cite how they had strong disagreements over the proper heating of embryos. They also state that Dr Kamrava has been named in at least five medical malpractice lawsuits since 1991.

Another former employee, Shirin Afshar, the office administrator, took legal action against Dr Kamrava over financial irregularities. The suit appeared to have been settled in 1999, shortly before it went to trial.

Dr Kamrava did not return calls from The Times. When confronted by reporters earlier in the week, he said that he had granted a television interview.

[Jasman0717 9]

This bozo woman hasn't been well received here in Orange county. The blogs on the Orange County Register are really slamming her and she is on public assistance so the good citizens of California are going to get to pay for this mess.

[Heracles 417]

She is a freakin nutso crook.

Lucky she is not in our State.

That faux doctor looks like a crook himself.

Edited February 13, 2009 by Aficionado

[Jasman0717 9]

She is a freakin nutso crook.

Lucky she is not in our State.

I heard the hospital is going to bill MediCal so we will also be paying for the hospital costs which are projected to be about 800k. Ugh

[Nagishkaw 510]

Not too cool, I'd say.

[Peikko 1,575]

Dr Mengele lives.

If what this article is suggesting is true then it's not all on the screwed up girl. She was also being manipulated by a nutso Dr.

[Jasman0717 9]

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/suleman...-children-years

[Dr. Obvious 49]

She is a freakin nutso crook.

Lucky she is not in our State.

I heard the hospital is going to bill MediCal so we will also be paying for the hospital costs which are projected to be about 800k. Ugh

That down from the $1.3-2.4 million they were predicting? I liked how some of the reporters were trying to get ahold of Arnold to ask if California was really going to cough up the money for this when they are in the middle of such financial disaster.

[Jasman0717 9]

That down from the $1.3-2.4 million they were predicting? I liked how some of the reporters were trying to get ahold of Arnold to ask if California was really going to cough up the money for this when they are in the middle of such financial disaster.

How wonderful Social Services is already providing her with food stamps and obviously that wil go up. The program is funded by the Feds so she will get her support.

[Peikko 1,575]

Yes, everything that is wrong with California is down to this one girl. If it hadn't been for her we'd all be tickety boo.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

She is a freakin nutso crook.

Lucky she is not in our State.

That faux doctor looks like a crook himself.

Maybe Dr. Rajah only interviewed with him over phone (it does happen, especially when the interviewer is in US and candidate in another country)--as his appearance would have probably given her the willies, so she would not have even spent the 3 weeks.

[Jasman0717 9]

Yes, everything that is wrong with California is down to this one girl. If it hadn't been for her we'd all be tickety boo.

I don't think that is the issue here. This woman is nuts. How in the world is she going to be able to afford 14 children on her own. She does nothing now, the grandparents are footing the bill and the grandmother is truly frustrated by this woman's lack of responsibility.

This isn't a California issue, this is a human nature issue!

[Nagishkaw 510]

Yup, that it is.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

**** Hijack by OP ****

Ahem, it seems to me that the original subject of the thread was how creepy Dr. Kamrava is.

**** End hijack ****

[Dr. Obvious 49]

I read somewhere that he did a lot of under the table work for people without insurance.