IVF Patients Suing Clinic After They Destroyed But Still Implanted Embryos?!

(TheConservativeTimes.org) – So far, eleven couples have sued a clinic in California over claims that the staff made a mistake and destroyed their embryos in something they referred to as a “toxic incubator,” but continued to implant these embryos into the patients.

Staff from the clinic, Ovation, which is a Tennessee-based facility in Newport Beach, said that they mistakenly cleaned the incubator with hydrogen peroxide instead of their usual solution. The use of peroxide created an incubator that was then toxic to the embryos and those embryos were still implanted in patients over a week-long period; none of those patients became pregnant. Ovation said that they noticed an issue when there was a zero percent success rate among their patients.

An attorney for the case, Adam Wolf, said, “My clients are devastated by Ovation’s serious error.” He continued, “For some victims, this was their last chance to have a biologically related child.

“We want to know what happened, how it happened, and they want to make sure this never happens again,” Wolf stated.

Initial lawsuits were filed in mid-April by Wolf and another attorney. However, a joint lawsuit with nine other couples that were affected was also submitted to the Orange County Superior Court. According to Wolf, there are six other lawsuits against the clinic.

The plaintiffs are suing for issues including negligence, medical battery, and intentional representation, and they are looking into a jury trial. They say that the clinic failed to properly train their staff and that they misrepresented the health of the embryos before implantation.

In-vitro fertilization is becoming a popular choice for couples but there have been a lot of issues regarding IVF including doctors who have implanted their own sperm into patients or patients being implanted with the wrong embryos.

“In virtually all of those cases the problem stems from human error,” said Wolf. “Those errors would be far less common if we had meaningful oversight and regulation over the fertility industry.”