Over 10 US Couples Sue IVF Clinic, Alleging Staff Implanted "Dead, Toxic" Embryos

Around 11 couples in the United States are suing an in vitro fertility (IVF) provider saying it implanted "dead" and "toxic" embryos despite knowing they were non-viable. According to ABC News, in a joint lawsuit filed on Tuesday, 9 couples allege that workers at Ovation Fertility in California exposed the embryos to lethal amounts of "poison". They revealed that they underwent implantations of the embryos this year in January, but none of them were successful. 

According to the suit, the couples blamed themselves and their bodies in the days and weeks after their failed pregnancies. Some even underwent medical procedures to find out what went wrong. However, in February and early March Ovation Fertility started to reveal to their physicians that something had gone wrong in the labs, the outlet reported. 

The suit alleges that the fertility centre only disclosed something had gone wrong when several fertility doctors questioned why there was a 0% success rate for the embryos that had been thawed over a two-week period when the success rate is normally 75%. It also says that Ovation tried to "trick" patients into signing waivers of their claims and non-disparagement agreements. 

The nine couples came forward after two other couples had announced a similar lawsuit last week saying their embryos were destroyed when a lab employee wrongly used hydrogen peroxide instead of a sterile solution in an incubator. 

Ovation Fertility is being sued on multiple grounds, including negligence, medical battery, concealment, intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, negligent hiring, retention and supervision and loss of consortium. 

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In a statement to ABC News, the fertility centre said that has protocols in place to protect the "health and integrity of every embryo under our care". "This was an isolated incident related to an unintended laboratory technician error that impacted a very small number of patients. As soon as we recognized that pregnancy numbers were lower than our usually high success rates, we immediately initiated an investigation. We did not knowingly transfer nonviable embryos for implantation," Ovation Fertility said. 

"We have been in close contact with these few impacted patients since the issue was discovered. We are grateful for the opportunity to help patients build a family and will continue to implement and enforce rigorous protocols to safeguard that process," it added.