Notified Patients Slow to Respond

Only three of about 30 patients UC Irvine suspects were unknowingly involved in improper egg or embryo transplants at its fertility clinic have responded to the university’s notification letter, and UCI said Friday that it still does not know how many pregnancies or live births resulted.

One-third of the notified women live in Europe or South America, possibly delaying lengthier discussions of whether the eggs or embryos were actually harvested or implanted, said Thomas C. Cesario, dean of UC Irvine’s medical school.

Southern California residents make up the remaining 20 patients UCI has contacted since last weekend about what administrators say were questionable egg or embryo transfers at the fertility clinic known as the Center for Reproductive Health.

“Besides just contacting patients,” said Cesario, who said he has been involved in the university’s notification process, “we still need [in-person discussions] with some of the patients to know what the patients’ understanding of what was happening was: Did [you] know whose eggs you were getting? Did you know under what circumstances?

“Those are all conditions that need to be explored.”

Some of the women, for instance, might have been set to receive egg transplants at the clinic but found they were pregnant beforehand, Cesario said.

Prior to Wednesday, a clinical panel commissioned by the university concluded that only five improper transfers might have occurred.

Closed since June 2 while investigations proceed into allegations of improprieties, the famed center and its three fertility doctors suffered another blow Wednesday when the university dropped its latest bomb: It alleged to have “credible evidence” that another 30 patients may unknowingly have been involved in improper egg transfers at the clinic and a former affiliate now called Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center. It was formerly known as AMI/Garden Grove Medical Center.

As a result of the 30 more allegedly improper egg transfers, the university said Wednesday, as many as seven live births may have occurred.

UCI Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening also said Wednesday that the university is probing whether the allegedly improper egg transfers involved a pattern of younger women’s eggs being given to older patients with unusable eggs.

The three doctors implicated in possible clinic improprieties, Ricardo H. Asch, Jose P. Balmaceda and Sergio C. Stone, have all denied knowingly engaging in misconduct. Asch and Stone have both leased office space elsewhere in Orange County--Asch near Western Medical Center-Santa Ana and Stone near Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center; his attorney said Friday that Stone had signed the lease long before the clinic scandal, with a June 2 move-in.

While only three of about 30 women have responded to UCI’s notification letter, Cesario said, a 24-hour hot line for fertility clinic patients has had more activity. He did not know exact numbers.

“We would hope that the patients would come forth sooner rather than later,” he said. “I’m not sure what people’s individual reactions were. I’ve made myself available to meet with two patients, and in both cases they rescheduled. I personally thought there would be a range of emotions, and I think there are people who would legitimately say, ‘We don’t want to know, and we’re happy with what happened.’ ”