Investigations begin into Ohio fertility clinic
CLEVELAND — A fertility clinic where thousands of frozen embryos and eggs may have been destroyed in a storage-tank failure is being investigated by two accreditation organizations and Ohio's health department.
It's not clear yet what caused the malfunction on March 4 at the clinic run by University Hospitals in suburban Cleveland. It's also a mystery why liquid nitrogen levels for a storage tank at a San Francisco fertility clinic fell dramatically on the same day. There is no known connection between the two episodes.
Couples who've already been told their embryos are no longer viable say they are devastated because now they may not be able to have their own children. University Hospitals has said about 700 patients were affected.
The College of American Pathology in Chicago is among those investigating the Ohio clinic, which could lose accreditation if it's found to be out of compliance and doesn't resolve the issues, said Dr. Paul Bachner, adviser to the accreditation committee.
The organization, though, doesn't have the power to shut down the operation. Fertility labs seek accreditation because it helps attract patients, said Denise Driscoll, senior director of accreditation for the College of American Pathology.
University Hospitals' fertility lab passed the organization's inspection in 2016. The San Francisco lab was found in compliance in 2017.
A second health-care accrediting organization, the Joint Commission, and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine also will look into the incidents. The Ohio Department of Health is investigating whether University Hospitals is in compliance with federal rules for Medicare and Medicaid programs, said department spokesman Russ Kennedy.
Several lawsuits already have been filed. On Wednesday, a woman whose frozen eggs were stored and ruined at the Pacific Fertility Center filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco, accusing the company of gross negligence in its maintenance, inspection and monitoring of a storage freezer that malfunctioned in early March.