Sunday, November 5, 1995

SUSAN KELLEHER; MICHELLE NICOLOSI; KIM CHRISTENSEN
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER:

A former UCI administrator who reported egg theft allegations last year said university officials did not want patients to know they were victimized.

"UCI represented to me from the onset that they did not feel the patients had a need to know or even a right to know," said Debra Krahel, former senior administrator at the UCI Medical Center and one of three whistle-blowers punished for reporting problems at the clinic. A University of California, Irvine, spokeswoman denied Saturday that UCI officials failed to aggressively seek out patients unwittingly involved in illicit egg or embryo transfers carried out by UCI doctors. But she would not detail steps the university has taken beyond repeating that 13 patients had been reached with registered letters this past spring.

The Orange County Register reported Saturday that at least 60 women were unknowingly involved in illicit egg transfers, nearly twice the number that university officials have previously acknowledged.

Fertility doctors Ricardo Asch, Jose Balmaceda and Sergio Stone are under federal grand-jury investigation for egg theft, tax evasion and insurance fraud. The doctors have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

The lack of criminal charges from the grand jury has frustrated at least one set of victims.

"How big does it have to get until they do something with (Asch)?" asked Debbie Challender of Corona, one of the first women to discover records showing that her eggs had been given to someone else. "I don't understand what they're waiting for."

Challender has filed suit against UCI and the doctors. But she was especially angry Saturday that the university was ignoring another group of patients.

"They never did anything," she said. "They covered it up and are as much a part of it."

UCI spokeswoman Fran Tardiff denied Saturday that the university had ignored evidence, claiming they have no access to the list uncovered by the Register. In telephone calls Friday and in Saturday's edition, the Register told UCI officials that the Register's information was already in possession of the investigations task force of which UCI is a member. Tardiff said she didn't know if officials have asked the task force for a copy of the list.

Tardiff said senior UCI officials were unavailable for comment Saturday.

University officials have repeatedly lamented their inability to get records, but critics said UCI delayed asking the state Medical Board to use its subpoena powers, and did not pursue access to the records vigorously enough in court.

In May, University of California lawyers sued for medical and laboratory records that could show whether the doctors conducted improper research or used women's eggs and embryos without their consent.

When their request for a temporary restraining order to place the records in protective custody was denied May 16, a hearing on a preliminary injunction was scheduled for June 2.

But it was canceled when UC lawyers withdrew the motion. University lawyers at the time did not explain why they withdrew the motion, saying only that it was done "as a matter of litigation strategy."

Krahel, the whistle-blower, said Saturday that the university has done as little as possible to notify patients or provide them with support.

She said that in a November 1994 meeting, she told three UCI officials _ including counsel to the chancellor Paul Najar _ that patients involved should be told of the egg thefts.

"They felt this would be devastating for the patients, so it would be better if they didn't know," she said.

Krahel said she got the same response from a KPMG Peat Marwick auditor hired by the university to investigate the clinic.

Fertility specialists and medical ethicists said the latest developments in the scandal highlight the need for regulation in the industry.

"I think that the fact that it allegedly occurred has stirred a lot of people to rethink the issue of regulation," said Dr. Edward E. Wallach, professor in the department of gynecology and obstetrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Maryland.

"I think that change is inevitable."

Dr. Sam Wood, director of the Reproductive Sciences Center in La Jolla, said he suspected the scandal was wider than previously reported, but that he had doubted it would come to light.

"Initially all fertility centers are going to have problems convincing patients they deserve their trust," he said, "but in the end, it's going to make the fertility industry stronger."