Ex-Patient Praises Fertility Physician as ‘Miracle Worker’

Misconduct allegations against a world-renowned fertility doctor have spurred a slew of investigations and a lawsuit by UC Irvine. But they have failed to shake the confidence of Andrea Feiner, a former patient of Dr. Ricardo H. Asch.

On Monday, the 43-year-old homemaker and part-time Tupperware saleswoman from Anaheim called a press conference to defend the doctor who helped her conceive a son, now 3 1/2.

Feiner urged other patients to join her.

“We want to do what we can to clear his name because a lot of people will miss him if he is not around,” said Feiner, as she fielded questions from TV news crews and newspaper reporters at the Santa Ana office of Asch’s attorney.

Feiner called Asch a “miracle worker” and “giver of hope.” She blasted as “unfounded and outrageous” the accusation by an anonymous woman who claims Asch implanted her eggs in a second patient at the UCI Center for Reproductive Health without obtaining consent.

Asch’s attorney, Lloyd Charton, said Feiner is one of dozens of former clinic patients who have called his office or sent faxes to ask how they can help the doctor fight allegations of unethical research and medical practices at the fertility clinic. Asch has denied any wrongdoing.

Feiner said Asch is “too caring and too ethical” to have done what he is accused of. “I don’t believe any of it,” she said.

She also said she didn’t understand what would motivate Asch to take a patient’s eggs without consent. “Why would he risk his whole career, practice and reputation to do that?” she said.

She said that during her experience at the clinic, the staff was “very careful” about details such as consent forms. But, she conceded, “anything is possible.”

Feiner said she was 37 when she and her husband, Mark, went to the UCI fertility clinic for help in having a child.

She said that, after two years of treatment and two miscarriages, she gave birth through artificial insemination. On the way home from the hospital after delivery, she said, the couple stopped at the UCI clinic so Asch could hold the newborn baby in his arms.

“He was thrilled,” she said.

Eight days later, she said, Asch took time out from his Sunday to attend her son’s brith milah, a Jewish ceremony at which he was named and circumcised.

Displaying a picture of the dark-haired boy named Davey, who is fascinated by trains, she said, “That is my son. He is the best part of me. But I wouldn’t have him if it weren’t for Dr. Asch and his clinic.”