California Medical Board Investigates Octuplet Fertility Doctor

Board spokeswoman Candis Cohen says the board will determine whether there was a violation of medical standards. The board has not identified who is under investigation or where the fertility treatment was performed.

In addition to the injury reports, state documents reveal that Suleman had three failed pregnancies prior to becoming a mother. She reportedly said "I just wanted to die. I suspected I was pregnant but I thought 'that's ridiculous.' " But the birth of the baby "helped my spirits."  In addition, she said she was depressed with "recent thoughts of death." She told a doctor evaluating for the state her that the depression was related to "the powerful and uncontrollable emotions associated with her pregnancy: both the fear that it would end and her elation that it might be brought to fruition and she would realize her dream of having a child."

As for Suleman's failed marriage, according to the records she attributed much of her break-up with her ex-husband to the pain and suffering sustained in the riot. She told a psychiatrist the bouts of depression she was suffering as a result of her injury were unfair to her husband. "I don't want to keep bringing him down. I want him to move on with his life," she told a psychiatrist. The couple then split in 2000, and were officially divorced last year.