Septuplet Parents Name Doctor, Clinic : Frustacis Sue, Charge Malpractice

Patti and Sam Frustaci, parents of the first septuplets born in the United States, Tuesday sued the West Los Angeles clinic and the doctor who treated the mother with fertility drugs.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, accuses Dr. Jaroslav Marik and the Tyler Medical Clinic of medical malpractice and causing wrongful deaths through failure to properly care for Patti Frustaci while she was being treated with the fertility drug Pergonal in the fall of 1984. One of the septuplets was stillborn, and three others died within 19 days of their birth on May 21.

Attorney R. Browne Greene said Marik could have prevented what he termed “a medical catastrophe” if he had administered hormonal tests and ultrasonic examinations, which were described as accepted practices in the fertility therapy field, on Patti Frustaci. Through such procedures, Greene said, Marik could have detected the large number of eggs the 31-year-old Frustaci had produced and prevented their fertilization.

“Dr. Marik never told her up front what was coming,” Greene said. “She had a right to get the proper information, and she never did.”

Marik said he had not been served with the suit “and therefore I don’t know what it alleges.”

“I can’t make a comment until I have seen it,” he said.

The seven infants were delivered 12 weeks premature by Caesarean section. The three survivors--two boys and a girl--have since gone home to Riverside.

Greene said it is not possible at the moment to determine the exact amount of damages that the couple will seek, although it could eventually exceed $3.25 million.

“They have medical expenses of more than $1

million up to now, and the children still have serious problems that are going to require special care,” Greene said.

Greene said the Frustacis have been made “virtual prisoners by the need to care for and support these children.” They have received little support and gifts in comparison to what they might have expected if more of the babies had lived, he said.

In addition to medical costs and Patti Frustaci’s loss of earnings because she had to give up her job as an English teacher, Greene said, the couple and the three surviving children can ask for up to $250,000 each for non-economic losses such as pain and suffering. An additional $1 million could be awarded if it is decided that non-economic losses also apply to the four infants who died, according to Greene.

Couple Not at Conference

The Frustacis did not attend Wednesday’s press conference at the Greater Los Angeles Press Club, principally, Greene said, because Patti Frustaci had to take the infants, who still suffer from chronic lung disease, optic nerve damage and hernias, to a clinic for specialized treatment.

In a statement read by Greene, Frustaci said she “cannot begin to put into words how painful it has been to lose four children. Each one was precious and unique, and their loss will with be with us . . . for the rest of our lives.”

Frustaci said she and her husband, a salesman for a Buena Park industrial firm, had decided to file the lawsuit against Marik and his clinic after they consulted with other doctors.

“We have come to believe that I was not treated as I should have been,” she said. “If I had, this catastrophe would never have occurred.”

After undergoing successful Pergonal treatment by Marik that led to the birth of a son in March, 1984, Patti Frustaci returned to the clinic in September of that year for further fertility therapy.