LOS ANGELES — The Southern California mother of octuplets was implanted with embryos at a Beverly Hills fertility clinic run by a well-known — and controversial — specialist who pioneered a method for helping women conceive.
Dr. Michael Kamrava’s name emerged as a result of an interview that aired Monday on NBC with Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to eight babies Jan. 26.
Over the past two weeks, the identity of Suleman’s fertility doctor has been a source of mystery because of questions over the ethics of implanting numerous embryos in a woman who already had six children.
Kamrava, 56, did not immediately return a pager message left by The Associated Press, and a receptionist at his clinic near Rodeo Drive said he was not giving interviews.
Without identifying the doctor, the Medical Board of California said last week it was looking into the Suleman case to see whether there was a “violation of the standard of care.” The medical board said Monday that it has not taken any disciplinary action against Kamrava in the past.
In the NBC interview, Suleman did not identify her doctor by name but said that she went to the West Coast IVF Clinic in Beverly Hills — of which Kamrava is director — and that all 14 of her children were conceived with help from the same doctor.
In 2006, Los Angeles TV station KTLA ran a story on infertility that showed Kamrava treating Suleman and discussing embryo implantation.
Kamrava graduated from the University of Illinois and went to medical school at Case Western University in Cleveland, according to state records and his website.
Some fertility specialists said Kamrava is a controversial figure in the field.
“He’s tried some novel techniques, and some of those methods have been controversial,” said Dr. John Jain, founder of Santa Monica Fertility Specialists.
Jain criticized the decision to implant so many embryos, saying, “I do think that this doctor really stepped outside the guidelines in a very extreme matter, and as such, put both the mother and children at extra high risk of disability and even death.”
Suleman said she had six embryos implanted for each of her pregnancies. The octuplets were a surprise result of her last set of six embryos, she said, explaining she had expected twins at most. Two of the embryos evidently divided in the womb.
An in-vitro procedure typically costs between $8,000 and $15,000. Asked on NBC how she was able to afford the treatments, Suleman said she had saved money and used some of the more than $165,000 in disability payments she received after being injured in a 1999 riot at a state mental hospital where she worked.
Suleman, who is 33, single and unemployed, told NBC’s “Today” show she was “fixated” on having children. She said her doctor “did nothing wrong” and had warned her of possible complications.
Suleman said that she does not receive welfare, but her publicist, Mike Furtney, said Monday that she receives $490 a month in food stamps.
She also receives disability payments for three of her six previous children.
