Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Fertility Center Where Eggs Were Damaged Faces Accusations Of Gross Negligence In Class-Action Suit
The Washington Post: Class-Action Lawsuit Filed Against Pacific Fertility For Loss Of Up To Thousands Of Embryos And Eggs
A woman whose frozen eggs were stored at the Pacific Fertility Center has 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. Pacific Fertility is one of two centers that separately reported problems in liquid-nitrogen tanks where thousands of eggs and embryos were kept. Officials at both facilities have acknowledged that some — or potentially all — of the tissue may have been damaged. (Cha, 3/14)
San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco Woman Sues Fertility Center After Frozen Eggs Destroyed
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. (Ho, 3/14)
The Associated Press: Investigations Begin Into Ohio Fertility Clinic Malfunction
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. (3/14)
The Washington Post: FAQ: Are My Frozen Embryos Safe? Everything You Need To Know About The Freezer Malfunctions.
In what many reproductive health experts have called a stunning coincidence, two fertility centers in different parts of the country experienced malfunctions in their freezing tanks on the same weekend in early March. Thousands of eggs and embryos were probably lost. Would-be parents are suing. Here's what we know about what happened at the University Hospitals Ahuja Medical Center's Fertility Center in Cleveland and the Pacific Fertility Center in San Francisco, how the country's regulatory process works with reproductive health services and how investigations could unfold. (Cha, 3/14)
