Couples sue clinic; Staff accused of implanting dead embryos

Couples sue clinic over lost embryos

Nine couples are suing a Newport Beach fertility lab saying the lab's negligence led to the death of their embryos. One couple says they may have lost their one chance to be parents. The lab has called it an isolated incident.

As she looks into TV news cameras Brooke Burger of Fullerton says, "This is just unacceptable behavior, and it cannot be allowed to continue."

If things had worked out, Berger might have been about four months pregnant right now. Instead, she and her husband are suing Ovation Fertility in Newport Beach along with eight other couples whose dreams of parenthood were destroyed when they say their embryos were destroyed.

"Right now, we’re seeking answers," said Rob Marcereau, one of the attorneys for the nine couples. "They want to find out what happened because Ovation hasn't given them straight answers."

During a news conference, the attorneys showed embryo images of some of the nine potential mothers in the lawsuit.

Brooke Berger didn't keep hers. She says it was too painful of a reminder – both emotionally and physically, as needles and medical supplies were involved in the IVF process.

"We waited on pins and needles for 12 days waiting to find out if there was going to be a positive pregnancy test and during that time, every little twinge in your body means something. You can't get away from the idea that maybe this will work," Berger said after implantation.

"I'm sorry and knowing that there was no possibility they put me through that. That's horrifying," she said.

Berger and the other plaintiffs are alleging that the women were knowingly implanted with dead embryos after their doctors couldn't even understand what was wrong.

"He and other doctors had noticed that they had a zero percent success rate which is really unusual when they normally have about a 75% success rate. We started asking questions of Ovation and only then did Ovation say there might be something wrong," she said.

To be clear, she says her private doctor uses Ovation for lab services; services the attorneys believe were mishandled. She doesn't believe he was part of the company.

"We have strong reason to believe now that's its hydrogen peroxide that was the poison for these embryos. For every single embryo that was implanted between January 18th and January 30th," attorney Ben Ikuta said.

"This is not a trivial thing that we put our bodies thru to have a family," Berger said.

Ovation issued this statement: