Octuplet Doctor Strikes Again, Report Says

Feb. 13, 2009— -- The fertility doctor who helped Nadya Suleman conceive her octuplets also treated a 49-year-old woman who is carrying quadruplets, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Dr. Michael Kamrava transferred at least seven embryos to the unnamed woman, who is hospitalized at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, the Times reported today.

Like Suleman, the woman has been placed on bedrest because of discomfort and to protect the unborn children.

The woman, who is reportedly 20 weeks pregnant, has three other children but was hoping to have one more, according to the Times.

Meanwhile, the California Medical Board is reportedly investigating Kamrava for violating guidelines by implanting too many embryos in women and using unconventional in-vitro fertilization techniques.

Kamrava has previously defended his method, which he said makes it easier for women to conceive.

Dr. John Jain, a reproductive endocrinologist at Santa Monica Fertility Specialists in California, said Kamrava's technique is "experimental, at best, and very little data exists on the procedure."

Jain also said a 49-year-old woman carrying quadruplets poses significant health risk for the mother and the children.

"Not only are there risks to the unborn babies, pre-term delivery and all that goes with it as we learned from the octuplets, but to a 49-year-old woman the risks mostly relate to her cardiovascular system and these risks are serious, such as stroke and heart attack and even death," Jain told ABC News.

Who Is Dr. Michael Kamrava?

Suleman said in an interview this week that a single doctor helped her conceive all 14 of her children. While she did not reveal the identity of this doctor, a 2006 report by television station KTLA showed a grateful Suleman praising the work of Beverly Hills physician Michael Kamrava.

According to the Web site for the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, even with his controversial fertility techniques, Kamrava has one of the worst success rates in the country at 10 percent. The national average is a 39 percent success rate.

Suleman's mother, Angela Suleman, said she dissuaded one doctor from performing the in-vitro fertilization procedures that led to all 14 births.

"Her dad and I were talking to the doctor and we said ... she's not married; she wants children and she really does not have any means to support them and ... she really shouldn't have more," she told the news agency Radar Online. "That's enough, so he didn't implant anymore embryos and we're thankful for that. But then, she went somewhere else and someone else did, so now she has eight more."

Kamrava, who has refused to talk to the media about the case, has become a central figure in the unfolding drama as critics questioned the ethics of a doctor who provided IVF to a single mother of six that allowed her to have eight more children.

The California medical board is reportedly conducting an investigation to see if the doctor who helped the mother conceive the octuplets violated the standard of care by implanting so many embryos in such a young woman. Top fertility experts also question his apparent technique of using a camera and catheter to insert embryos, and warn the procedure may actually be dangerous.

Three of Suleman's Older Children Are Disabled

"Using a camera or scope to transfer embryos has not been scientifically validated to show any benefits, and there is the possibility that it may actually do some harm," said Dr. Robert Boostanfar of the Huntington Reproductive Center in Pasadena, Calif.

Three of Suleman's older children are disabled. The family receives $490 per month in food stamps to help feed them. Their grandmother provides most of the care for the children who now live with her, her husband and their mother in a small, three-bedroom home.

"I was the main provider, she had no means to support them," Angela Suleman told Radar Online. "They were always living in my house. She's just not thinking straight."

In the meantime, Nadya Suleman's children may prove to be a financial burden not only to her family but to the state of California as well. Kaiser Permanente, which runs the hospital where the babies are being cared for, is now asking the state to foot the babies' medical bills, ABC News has learned.