7 More Couples File Suits in UC Irvine Fertility Clinic Case

A Newport Beach attorney has filed lawsuits on behalf of seven more couples alleging their eggs or embryos were stolen by doctors at UC Irvine’s fertility clinic and that some were implanted in other women without permission.

The lawsuits filed Monday by attorney Theodore S. Wentworth name the University of California and three of its fertility specialists as defendants, bringing the number of legal claims involving the clinic to more than 15.

“It’s been terribly upsetting, more so than anything I’ve ever experienced or would ever hope to,” said one plaintiff, Nancy Vanags of Anaheim.

Vanags and her husband, Maris, claim that UC Irvine’s fertility team took 18 of her eggs and implanted three or more in other women. “People who have not been through this could not possibly understand the trauma of what this is like,” she said.

University officials said they could not comment on pending litigation. Spokeswoman Fran Tardiff did note, however, that only one of the plaintiffs in the suits is among the about 35 women whom the university has identified as possible victims of improper egg transfers at UC Irvine and at an affiliated clinic in Garden Grove. Information on which plaintiff had been identified as a victim was unavailable.

But Wentworth said he thought that more than 70 women had been victimized.

The complaints pertain to alleged misconduct at UC Irvine’s Center for Reproductive Health and its predecessor, a fertility clinic at AMI/Garden Grove Medical Center, from 1988 to 1991. Both clinics are now closed.

Attorneys for the three doctors--Ricardo H. Asch, Jose P. Balmaceda and Sergio C. Stone--had not seen the lawsuits, but all repeated that their clients did not knowingly engage in wrongdoing.

“Our preliminary reaction is that we are going to dispute and contest all those lawsuits and they are going to be vigorously defended,” said Asch’s attorney, Ken E. Steelman.

Patrick Moore, who represents Balmaceda, said his client practiced mostly at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills from 1989 on. That clinic is still open.

Stone’s attorney, Karen L. Taillon, accused Wentworth of trying to drum up publicity in hopes of being named a lead attorney if all the fertility cases are consolidated in Orange County Superior Court.

Wentworth filed suit in June on behalf of a Corona couple alleging that their embryos were stolen and implanted in a Newport Beach woman who gave birth to twins. Like the first lawsuit, this set of complaints accuses the doctors of lying to patients about the fate of their embryos and accuses the university of negligent supervision.

According to the suits, UC and the physicians betrayed patients in a “conspiracy” to increase the fertility center’s success rate.

“It’s been totally devastating to us,” said plaintiff Diane Porter, 33, of Valley, Neb., who with her husband, Budge Porter, 40, first sought help from Asch in 1991.

The Porters, who eventually conceived a daughter through fertility procedures elsewhere, contend that four of Diane Porter’s eggs were taken by Asch without permission.

Other couples suing are Michael and Diane Mills of San Clemente; Ken and Sharon Starr of Beaumont; Kathy and Pedro Lopez of Lake Elsinore; Rebecca and Clifford Robinson of Riverside, and Bruce and Deborah Diller of Santa Ana.