Officials Told of Clinic’s Egg Misuse in ‘92, Nurse Testifies

A former nurse at the Center for Reproductive Health at UC Irvine told an angry Senate committee Wednesday that he had warned his superiors about the misappropriation of human eggs and embryos at the center for more than two years before anyone launched an investigation.

Norbert (Gil) Giltner, who worked in the operating room of UC Irvine Medical Center, described in graphic detail how eggs were taken from one patient and given to another without either’s consent--the most disturbing allegations confronting the center and its team of specialists.

Giltner contended that misappropriation occurred in at least 10 cases, saying that when he tried to show copies of embryo and laboratory records to a university auditor as far back as 1992, he was told, “I’m an accountant. I have no idea what to do with that.”

Giltner was one of 10 witnesses subpoenaed to testify Wednesday before the Senate Select Committee on Higher Education, which has launched a full-scale inquiry into allegations of financial and medical misconduct at UC Irvine’s fertility clinic.

During some of the more passionate testimony, whistle-blower Debra Krahel accused the university of “biomedical rape,” while the medical center’s top administrator heatedly denied retaliating against whistle-blowers and orchestrating a cover-up.

In her first public statement on the scandal, Mary Piccione, medical center executive director, told the panel, “I have not retaliated against any of the three people alleged to be whistle-blowers. . . . I have a history of being a public servant for a very long time. Never has somebody so heartbreakingly attacked me.”

Piccione later broke down in tears, calling Krahel an “opportunist” who filed the whistle-blower report merely to protect her job status, which Piccione alleged had been jeopardized by poor performance.

Dr. Ricardo H. Asch, the fertility center’s director, appeared before the committee but declined to testify. Asch and his two partners, Jose P. Balmaceda and Sergio Stone, have denied any wrongdoing.

Stone testified late Wednesday that, because of the scandal, his 17-year relationship with UC Irvine had “been changed and shattered forever, by what I believe are unsupported allegations made against me by people who do not know me.”

His voice rising in anger, the 53-year-old fertility expert from Santiago, Chile, said university officials “have been unwilling to show me one piece of credible evidence that I have done the things of which I am accused” and from the beginning, have “taken a position of absolute mistrust.”

Stone said that Asch and Balmaceda handled in-vitro procedures while he concentrated on surgeries to correct various diseases.

“I have no knowledge that transfers of eggs took place without consent,” he said. “I did not participate in these alleged actions.”

Ronald G. Brower, Asch’s attorney, said after Wednesday’s session that it was impossible for his client to receive a fair hearing from state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), who chairs the committee.

“The chairman has called my client a technocrat playing with the lives of people,” Brower said. “Today in his opening statement he referred to my client as ‘being the one charged’ and said he ‘promoted legislative anarchy.’ Our view is that this is legislative anarchy.”

In other testimony Wednesday, Krahel, the former senior administrator turned whistle-blower, said efforts to punish those who reported misconduct came from the highest levels of medical center management, naming Piccione and her deputy, Herb Spiwak.

Krahel, one of three whistle-blowers whose allegations exposed the controversy, often broke down during the hearing, charging the university with ignoring and covering up what she called “biomedical rapes.”

Krahel told the committee that Giltner had consistently reported allegations of wrongdoing, only to have his findings sanitized in audits.

Her voice breaking, Krahel testified that she was astonished to learn in June of last year that Giltner had reported his complaints in past audits in 1992 and 1993.

“When I asked for proof that the egg-switching was occurring, Mr. Giltner produced a stack of cryologs, explained the cryptic entries and pointed out the logging of eggs from one patient to another,” Krahel said. “It appeared that most of the transfers were occurring between young women producing viable eggs and older women who were indicated on the chart to be post-menopausal, thus not producing eggs.”

Giltner clarified that the recipients were not post-menopausal but were suffering “premature ovarian failure.”

Krahel, who was paid $495,000 in a confidential settlement with the university, said she tried repeatedly to report problems at the clinic as soon as she learned of them.

When the clinic’s office manager, Marilyn Killane, came to her with concerns about possible drug misuse in February, she said, she took the matter to Spiwak, who told her to fire Killane and take a “hands-off” approach to the clinic.

Later, after learning from Giltner and others of improper egg transfers, Krahel said, she called Stephany J. Ander, the woman who previously held her job.

“During the conversation [Ander] became quiet and then responded, ‘So, you’ve tripped across the missing eggs,’ ” Krahel testified.

Hayden opened Wednesday’s hearing by calling into question the motives of the three doctors who ran the clinic, as well as university administrators who “in an atmosphere of enthusiasm . . . lionized, subsidized and protected” the physicians.

“In the end . . . this hearing is about whether fertility doctors are becoming godlike in their sway over nature and, when doctors play God, who’s watching?” Hayden said.

UC Irvine, which recently sued the doctors who operated the center, on Wednesday released an independent audit that attempts to chronicle the allegations of three whistle-blowers, who claim that they, merely for airing their complaints, fell prey to “a common scheme of retaliation.”

Throughout Wednesday’s hearing, UC Irvine Executive Vice Chancellor Sidney H. Golub stood in the back row, grimacing occasionally as he watched the testimony.

He held an impromptu news conference in the hall to address allegations of retaliation by the whistle-blowers.

“It is clear that for some individuals the charges of retaliation were substantiated in some areas,” he said. “Killane was retaliated against . . . for coming forward against the doctors.

“The university has responsibility, and we have exercised that responsibility appropriately. The whistle-blowers were good citizens, and they did right. If [UC Irvine administrators] acted inappropriately toward them, we have to bear some responsibility. . . . We will deal with it.”

Despite his belated lauding of the whistle-blowers, Golub said he was distressed to learn during Krahel’s testimony that she had gone out “and started talking to patients rather than work through the system.”

A Corona couple who have sued the center and UC Irvine, alleging that the woman’s eggs were taken and implanted in another woman who later gave birth to twins, told the committee that their experience has been devastating.

“The effect that this has had on my wife, my family and myself has changed my entire life,” said John Challender, whose wife, Deborah, sat at his side.

“It’s not getting any easier, it’s getting more difficult the more we learn,” he said, breaking down during his testimony. “This is just short of devastating to me because I always felt I had control of my family’s future.

“I only wish that the University of California had been more concerned with this before it happened.”

Robert Chatwin, UC Irvine’s principal auditor, testified that the first time that he learned of possible egg misuse was in April, 1994, amid an investigation into charges of non-approved drug use and financial misconduct at the clinic.

But his boss, Andrew Yeilding, who was called from the audience to testify, confirmed that an auditor in his office came across similar allegations in late 1992.

Yeilding said the allegations were discussed with medical center officials, “but we did not bring an audit.” When Hayden asked why, Yielding said, “we look into financial issues,” and this was considered a medical issue.

Chatwin said he reported his suspicions of egg misuse to attorneys for UC Irvine Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening and the UC regents in April and May, 1994.

It was not until September, however, that UC Irvine appointed a clinical panel to probe the charges, along with two other panels to probe fiscal and management issues.