Spangenberg Shibley and Liber LLP: Lawsuit Filed on Behalf of Patients Impacted by University Hospital Egg and Embryo Freezer Incident

CLEVELAND, March 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Over the weekend of March 3, 2018, the temperature rose in one or more of the storage freezers storing human embryos and eggs at the University Hospitals Fertility Center located at the Ahuja Medical Center in Beachwood, Ohio.  This resulted in the thawing of the embryo over several hours with no response by University Hospital personnel. The embryos and eggs stored in the freezer are very likely unusable and will never become the children the parents hoped for when paying the large cost associated with In Vitro Fertilization.  The damage caused by the rise in temperature could affect the viability of the embryos and eggs for future procedures. University Hospitals sent out a letter attempting to notify persons with embryos and eggs stored in the freezer that their specimen may have been affected by the rise in temperature.

On Friday March 9^th 2018, Spangenberg Shibley and Liber LLP filed a lawsuit on behalf of those impacted by the University Hospitals Fertility Clinic freezer incident. According to the complaint filed, "The alarm alerting UH to the rise in temperature inside the tank(s) or freezer(s) went unanswered until the following morning when employees or agents of UH arrived at work to discover the alarm had been triggered the day before, resulting in harm to Plaintiffs' embryos, which made the human embryos unusable."  The lawsuit alleges that University Hospitals failed to properly monitor the liquid nitrogen storage tank containing the frozen embryos and eggs; failed to implement appropriate policies and procedures to protect the embryos and eggs from any environmental control malfunctions of the storage tanks/freezers; and failed to maintain the human embryos and/or eggs in a usable form and condition as required under the contract they entered with their patients. The plaintiff's claim that UH's failure to properly protect the embryos and eggs has caused economic loss for the amounts paid under the contract, future economic damages, loss of the value of human embryos, and loss of property to the Plaintiffs and other members of the Class.

If you have been contacted by University Hospitals regarding your embryos or eggs or if you have been impacted by the University Hospital human embryo and egg freezer malfunction we would be happy to answer your questions. Contact us by calling 216-696-3232, or visiting our website at www.spanglaw.com.

SOURCE Spangenberg Shibley & Liber LLP