16 Mar Second $5 Million Lawsuit Filed against San Francisco Fertility Clinic after Tank Malfunction that may have Destroyed Thousands of Eggs and Embryos
By The UK Daily Mail | Dailymail.com Reporter
PUBLISHED: 01:59 EDT, 16 March 2018 | UPDATED: 11:44 EDT, 16 March 2018
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‘Their dreams were destroyed’: Second $5 Million lawsuit filed against San Francisco fertility clinic after tank malfunction that may have destroyed thousands of eggs and embryos
Megan and Jonathan Bauer, from Sacramento, filed a $5million class action lawsuit on Thursday against Pacific Fertility Center
They claim they were planning on transferring one of eight embryos they entrusted the clinic with but were told that was not possible
The clinic has confirmed there was a liquid nitrogen failure in a storage tank that may have resulted in the loss of thousands of embryos and eggs
The Bauers are the second clients to file a lawsuit against the clinic
Last week, an Ohio hospital said more than 2,000 frozen eggs and embryos may have been damaged due to a refrigerator malfunction
A second lawsuit has been filed against a San Francisco fertility clinic after a rare tank malfunction may have destroyed thousands of embryos and frozen eggs – along with the hopes of hundreds of couples.
Megan and Jonathan Bauer, from Sacramento, filed a lawsuit on Thursday against Pacific Fertility Center, claiming they were planning to transfer one of eight embryos they trusted the clinic with when they were informed that wouldn’t be possible.
‘Their dreams of future children were irrevocably destroyed,’ their lawyer Adam Wolf said. ‘They entrusted their eggs and embryos after exhausting other avenues to have children.’
The class action lawsuit, filed on behalf of more than 100 of the center’s clients, cites ‘reckless and negligent conduct’ and seeks $5 Million in damages for negligence, breach of contract and conversion.
The couple began working with the fertility center in 2014 and had paid more than $10,000 to preserve their embryos and eggs, said a second attorney, Tracey Cowan.
They had been trying to conceive for three years and paid $600 a year to the clinic for storing their embryos, according to the Daily Beast.
The clinic confirmed this week that there was a liquid nitrogen failure in a storage tank in the facility that may have resulted in the temperature rising above the levels needed to store the embryos and eggs.
Herbert said at the time that the clinic’s staff thawed a few eggs and found they remain viable, but they had not checked any of the embryos.
The clinic also sent out emails to two other groups of patients about the failure – an estimated 100 patients who had tissue in the problematic tank and another tank, and then a second group whose embryos and eggs remained undamaged.
A spokesperson with the clinic said that an estimated 15 per cent of the clinic’s total number of eggs and embryos were in the damaged tank.
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