Fertility clinic is sued over lost eggs
A San Francisco woman has filed a lawsuit against Pacific Fertility Center, alleging the San Francisco clinic’s mishandling of a storage tank containing frozen embryos and eggs resulted in the loss of her eggs.
The suit seeks $5 million in damages and was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. It also names as a defendant Prelude Fertility, a private-equity-owned reproductive health company based in Atlanta, which in 2017 acquired a majority stake in Pacific Fertility Center.
The plaintiff is identified only as “S.M.” to protect her privacy, said her attorney, Adam Polk of the law firm Girard Gibbs. She underwent procedures in 2016 to preserve her eggs, which cost about $10,000, according to the suit.
A spokesman for Pacific Fertility Center did not imme-
diately offer comment on the suit.
On March 4, during a routine inspection, staff discovered a cryo-storage tank with low levels of liquid nitrogen, which is used to keep eggs and embryos frozen. The clinic notified several hundred patients who had their eggs or embryos stored in the affected tank. Some, including the plaintiff, were told their reproductive tissue had been destroyed and could not be used. Others were told their tissue was still viable.
The lawsuit alleges thousands of frozen eggs and embryos were destroyed in the incident. The center has not specified how many may have been affected.
The fertility center “committed gross negligence by failing to keep the human tissue under its care frozen, resulting in its permanent loss,” says the suit, which seeks class-action status.
In a statement issued Sunday, Pacific Fertility apologized for the incident and said an independent investigation is under way. “Our patients and the safety of their eggs and embryos are our highest priorities and we are reaching out to inform them of this incident,” the statement said. “In addition, we have completed a physical inspection of all of the lab equipment and have also thoroughly reviewed all cryo-preservation protocols with staff. We are truly sorry this happened and for the anxiety that this will surely cause.”
A similar incident at a University Hospitals Cleveland clinic where a storage tank suffered an unexplained rise in temperature damaged approximately 2,000 embryos, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported last week. A couple affected by that incident filed a lawsuit earlier this week.