Egg tragedy at fertility clinic
Thousands of frozen human embryos and eggs were likely destroyed when temperatures spiked in a storage tank at a nationally renowned Ohio fertility clinic, according to hospital officials on Friday.
The sudden thaw dashed the dreams of couples who had hoped to start families, including some who froze eggs in the 1980s or paid $10,000 for the painful procedure, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported.
“It’s devastating. It’s absolutely devastating,” Patti DePompei, president of University Hospitals Ahuja Medical Center in Cleveland, told the local station WKYC.
The medical disaster was caused when heat levels unexpectedly rose inside a liquid nitrogen tank at the fertility center, “compromising” up to 2,000 eggs and embryos last Saturday, the hospital officials admitted.
The fertility center apologized for the flub and said it plans to investigate how it happened, DePompei said.
“We are so very sorry this happened, and we want to do all that we can to support our patients and families through this very difficult time,” she said, adding that the hospital is working to “better understand the cause of this temperature fluctuation and ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”
The damaged eggs are a crushing blow to patients, including women who donated their eggs to delay a pregnancy or stored embryos for future vitro fertilization.
On Friday, the fertility center informed about 700 patients that their eggs and embryos may have been destroyed.
“We have already initiated contact with all of our patients to inform them and respond to their questions, and set up a designated call center to arrange personal meetings or calls with their physicians,” the hospital said in a statement.
On Sunday morning, embryologists who arrived at the center were alerted by an alarm that the temperature of the tank had increased, administrators told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
It’s unclear whether employees or a mechanical glitch caused the screw-up, the hospital said.
“We are bringing in independent experts to ensure we understand all aspects of this occurrence and do everything possible to address the situation,” the hospital statement noted.
“Right now, our patients come first. We are incredibly sorry this happened. We are committed to getting answers and working with patients individually to address their concerns,” it said.