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from the cracked-some-eggs...-noggins-next? dept.
In a letter to nearly 1,000 patients, University Hospitals in Ohio says that a tank's remote alarm system, meant to alert an employee to temperature swings, was disabled for an unknown length of time. That led to the destruction of around 4,000 frozen eggs and embryos, double the original estimate:
Hospital officials say they doesn't know who turned the remote alarm off or how long it was disabled. They also said they were aware the tank in question needed preventative maintenance. Some of the eggs and embryos had been stored there since the 1980s. The hospital's investigation is ongoing.
"Right now we do not know whether it's mechanical or human or [a] combination," said James Liu, chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at University Hospitals.
He says he doesn't think anyone intentionally disengaged the alarm. "Because it is a computer, we think it's unlikely that there was any kind of external force that was working to hack the computer or anything like that. We think it's unlikely," Liu said.
Previously:
Freezer Malfunction May Have Damaged Up to 2,000 Frozen Eggs and Embryos
Two Fertility Clinic Freezer Failures Occurred in a Single Day
(Score: 3, Informative) by rleigh on Wednesday March 28 2018, @07:03PM
Can be way more than 4000, depending on the tank size. A typical cryovial storage box (https://assets.fishersci.com/TFS-Assets/LCD/product-images/F32007~p.eps-650.jpg) can store 100 vials. There are many sizes and designs; sperm and embryos are typically stored in straws (http://www.irvinesci.com/products/25292-high-security-embryo-sperm-straws?dpt=Assisted+Reproductive+Technology). I've seen stacks ranging from 4 to 10 trays, and tanks which store from 4 to 8 stacks. So a mini tank about 2.5 feet high and wide can store 4 racks of 4 boxes = 1600 vials. A big tank about 4 feet wide and 5 high can store 8 racks of 10 boxes = 8000 vials. A room of them could contain hundreds of thousands. Straws are a different shape, and are stored at a lower density, but you can still pack thousands of them in.
Regarding costs, they aren't as expensive as you might think. The steel tank is expensive; can be $50k for a decent sized one, and more if you want built-in electronics to monitor liquid levels and temperatures. But liquid nitrogen is quite cheap, and you order it by the road tanker load.
An actual freezer is likely more expensive to run overall; ultra-low temperature freezers go down to -80℃ but are in my experience more prone to failure, even with redundancies in place (I've experienced several). They are not generally used for long term storage because they aren't sufficiently reliable or cold enough. They are typically used to do the initial freezing under controlled conditions prior to transfer to nitrogen storage. Because it's just regular square shelves, the capacity is huge though; you could fit several hundred boxes in one freezer; my old lab had a whole bank of them.