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Lafourche couple sue over missing embryos
THIBODAUX Attorneys for a Lafourche Parish couple say the hospital that handled their in vitro fertilization procedure lost the womans embryos, a problem related to a much broader issue of missing or misidentified embryos dating back more than a year.
Officials at Ochsner Health Systems fertility clinic in Elmwood, outside of New Orleans, have confirmed mix-ups of embryos revealed by an internal audit that began last year.
The hospital has admitted they cant account for all of the embryos and has suspended the in vitro fertilization program.
In vitro fertilization is the process where a womans egg and mans sperm are joined in a laboratory, than implanted in the mother.
Attorney Melanie Lagarde of the St. Martin & Borque law firm in Houma announced Saturday that Kim and Abraham Whitney went ahead with the in vitro procedure in Jan., 2007. The Whitneys, she said, had four embryos stored at Ochsner for a later fertilization procedure.
In July 2008 the Whitneys contacted Ochsner and scheduled a transfer of the frozen embryos, Lagarde said.
Court papers allege that the couple underwent medical procedures and testing in Oct. 2008 and then were contacted by Ochsner staff and told their four embryos were missing.
The Whitneys have struggled with this travesty for the past year and are devastated, Lagarde said. They want to know what happened to their embryos.
The couple filed suit in August, Lagarde said. After that the couple learned of record-keeping problems at Ochsner uncovered during its 2008 audit.
Court papers say that genetic tests done on mislabeled embryos revealed that none of them were those harvested from Kim Whitney.
An Ochsner spokesperson could not immediately be reached Saturday afternoon. But last week the hospitals CEO, Dr. Patrick Quinlan, announced the closure of the in vitro program.
We have reason to believe the IVF center has been compromised due to what appears to be a significant labeling issue which makes us unable to account for all of the frozen embryos in our IVF Center, Quinlan said in a news conference. We are disappointed in ourselves in what we have learned to date. We are deeply sorry for the concerns, anxiety and fear we know this causes our patients.
Ochsner officials told reporters the disclosure of problems with the in vitro program were not announced until this week because evaluations were not yet complete.
These evaluations take time, they require contacting folks and it is recently we received kind of the initial confirmation of some results that suggested that we needed to expand our inquiry, said Ochsner Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joseph Bisordi.
According to Ochsner the embryo mix-up could affect up to 100 patients.
At this point doctors dont believe any embryos were implanted in the wrong mother. Dr. Alfred Robicheaux , the hospitals obstetrics and gynecology chairman, said some parents have asked to have their in vitro babies born over the past year tested.
There are patients who have uncertainty at this point and asked if genetic testing is available and we tell them we will do everything possible to help them reach the reassurance that they want, said Robicheaux.
Another suit was filed by a St. Charles Parish couple but information on that litigation was not available Saturday.
Hospital officials say they will now audit every in-vitro procedure dating back to when the clinic opened in 2003.
Ochsner Health Systems, according to a statement on its Web site, is a non-profit, academic, multi-specialty, healthcare delivery system dedicated to patient care, research and education. The system includes seven hospitals and over 35 health centers located throughout southeast Louisiana. Ochsner employs more than 750 physicians in over 90 medical specialties and subspecialties and more than 300 clinical research trials annually.
Ochsner set up a toll-free hotline for questions about the embryo mix-up.
That number is 866-631-9783.
Patients also can e-mail the hospital at questions@ochsner.org.
WWL-TV contributed to this report.
THIBODAUX Attorneys for a Lafourche Parish couple say the hospital that handled their in vitro fertilization procedure lost the womans embryos, a problem related to a much broader issue of missing or misidentified embryos dating back more than a year.
Officials at Ochsner Health Systems fertility clinic in Elmwood, outside of New Orleans, have confirmed mix-ups of embryos revealed by an internal audit that began last year.
The hospital has admitted they cant account for all of the embryos and has suspended the in vitro fertilization program.
In vitro fertilization is the process where a womans egg and mans sperm are joined in a laboratory, than implanted in the mother.
Attorney Melanie Lagarde of the St. Martin & Borque law firm in Houma announced Saturday that Kim and Abraham Whitney went ahead with the in vitro procedure in Jan., 2007. The Whitneys, she said, had four embryos stored at Ochsner for a later fertilization procedure.
In July 2008 the Whitneys contacted Ochsner and scheduled a transfer of the frozen embryos, Lagarde said.
Court papers allege that the couple underwent medical procedures and testing in Oct. 2008 and then were contacted by Ochsner staff and told their four embryos were missing.
The Whitneys have struggled with this travesty for the past year and are devastated, Lagarde said. They want to know what happened to their embryos.
The couple filed suit in August, Lagarde said. After that the couple learned of record-keeping problems at Ochsner uncovered during its 2008 audit.
Court papers say that genetic tests done on mislabeled embryos revealed that none of them were those harvested from Kim Whitney.
An Ochsner spokesperson could not immediately be reached Saturday afternoon. But last week the hospitals CEO, Dr. Patrick Quinlan, announced the closure of the in vitro program.
We have reason to believe the IVF center has been compromised due to what appears to be a significant labeling issue which makes us unable to account for all of the frozen embryos in our IVF Center, Quinlan said in a news conference. We are disappointed in ourselves in what we have learned to date. We are deeply sorry for the concerns, anxiety and fear we know this causes our patients.
Ochsner officials told reporters the disclosure of problems with the in vitro program were not announced until this week because evaluations were not yet complete.
These evaluations take time, they require contacting folks and it is recently we received kind of the initial confirmation of some results that suggested that we needed to expand our inquiry, said Ochsner Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joseph Bisordi.
According to Ochsner the embryo mix-up could affect up to 100 patients.
At this point doctors dont believe any embryos were implanted in the wrong mother. Dr. Alfred Robicheaux , the hospitals obstetrics and gynecology chairman, said some parents have asked to have their in vitro babies born over the past year tested.
There are patients who have uncertainty at this point and asked if genetic testing is available and we tell them we will do everything possible to help them reach the reassurance that they want, said Robicheaux.
Another suit was filed by a St. Charles Parish couple but information on that litigation was not available Saturday.
Hospital officials say they will now audit every in-vitro procedure dating back to when the clinic opened in 2003.
Ochsner Health Systems, according to a statement on its Web site, is a non-profit, academic, multi-specialty, healthcare delivery system dedicated to patient care, research and education. The system includes seven hospitals and over 35 health centers located throughout southeast Louisiana. Ochsner employs more than 750 physicians in over 90 medical specialties and subspecialties and more than 300 clinical research trials annually.
Ochsner set up a toll-free hotline for questions about the embryo mix-up.
That number is 866-631-9783.
Patients also can e-mail the hospital at questions@ochsner.org.
WWL-TV contributed to this report.
deleted_user
So very sad. My heart goes out to these families involved in this.
ardua
been all over the news the last two days, this is insane. I was listening this morning and the thing that shocks me the most is they can't tell the couple where their embryos are or if maybe they were implanted in someone else. my heart goes out to all affected.
deleted_user
Thats terrible!
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