Eggs and embryos had been stored in university hospitals in a cryopreservation vat equipped with a remote alarm system that should have alerted an employee of any change in temperature. But the hospital said the alarm was off, so an alert was never issued when an apparent malfunction caused an increase in temperatures in the tank. Because the incident occurred on a Saturday night while the lab had no staff, no one noticed the continued rise in temperature. As a result, the eggs and embryos thawed. The hospital said that it is unlikely that any of them will be viable.
In court documents filed Friday, university hospitals denied responsibility and said that IVF had a number of risks and that patients had signed certain informed consent forms.
"Assisted reproductive treatment, including in vitro fertilization and related services, is individualized and patient-specific, and involves a number of risks to which the complainants have agreed," the document states.
She also stated that the plaintiffs [TRADUCTION] "were fully aware of the significant risks, benefits and alternatives available for treatment, and then voluntarily assumed and consented to these risks."
Some complainants are women with cancer and frozen in the hope of having children. One of the plaintiffs had banked his embryos after a diagnosis of ovarian cancer. After a second diagnosis, this time of uterine cancer, she had a hysterectomy. She and her husband had decided to stock their future babies in a long-term cryopreservation tank at the Cleveland University Hospitals Fertility Center.
"The rest of the world sees it as eggs and embryos, but we look at it as our future children," Kate Plants said in March.
Several families, including plants In June , an Ohio judge ordered that a committee oversee the progress of more than 50 lawsuits against university hospitals.
University hospitals appeared to attribute what had happened to "another or to d & # 39; 39; others "- without specifying who in the court document.
" The injuries and damages alleged by the plaintiffs, which are denied, may have been caused in whole or in part by the acts and omissions of the deceased. a third or others, whose conduct is no reason to To be anticipated and of which they are responsible and were not responsible. "
The hospital also stated in the documents that it" may have been caused by the operation of nature or by an idiosyncratic reaction and was not due or caused by an alleged fault, lack of care, negligence, or breach of duty by Defendants. "
A storage tank also malfunctioned at the Pacific Fertility Center in San Francisco on March 4, the same day as the incident of Cleveland.
CNN's Samantha Maldonado contributed to this report.
