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posted by mrpg on Tuesday March 13 2018, @02:39PM   Printer-friendly
from the fertil-ground-for-mistakes dept.

A second fertility clinic has reported a liquid nitrogen cooling system failure:

A San Francisco fertility clinic says that a problem with the liquid nitrogen in one of its storage tanks may have damaged thousands of frozen eggs and embryos, triggering calls and letters to more than 400 concerned patients of the Pacific Fertility Center.

The nitrogen level in one tank fell very low, according to Dr. Carl Herbert, the fertility clinic's president. Herbert told ABC News that an "emergency filling" immediately took place, and that the tank's contents were then transferred to a fully functioning tank.

The problem struck on March 4 — the same day that a similar cryogenic tank failure was reported in Cleveland, where the University Hospital Fertility Clinic is investigating "an unexpected temperature fluctuation" that jeopardized its tissue storage bank, where liquid nitrogen preserves eggs and embryos. That incident reportedly affected some 700 patients.

One failure: accident. Two failures...?

Previously: Freezer Malfunction May Have Damaged Up to 2,000 Frozen Eggs and Embryos


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by captain_nifty on Tuesday March 13 2018, @05:47PM

    by captain_nifty (4252) on Tuesday March 13 2018, @05:47PM (#651898)

    I really wonder what kind of pricing and insurance policy they have on frozen embryos.

    I briefly researched the umbilical cord blood companies who save cord blood from newborns against some rare cases where it is medically helpful later in life.

    Looking at their fees and policies, they had a flat payout fee if due to technical glitches your sample was destroyed. Based on the payout numbers and fees and the low likelihood and long storage terms, I figured most of these companies would be profitable if they simply threw everything away and didn't preserve any samples and just paid out if/when people requested their sample. Needless to say I chose not to engage any of these services.

    I would be surprised if these storage places don't have similar pre set loss fees and hold harmless clauses in their contracts.

    Our society chooses to mask practical incompetence with legal planning.

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