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One of the most potentially damning testimonies came on Tuesday, when nurse practitioner Audra Zachman, followed by her patient, Brittany Gould, spoke up.
Zachman, who works at an obstetrics / gynecology practice in Phoenix, Ariz., Said she ordered a hormonal test to help track the progress of Gould’s pregnancy. “I encouraged her to go to Theranos,” Zachman said, adding that the test required multiple blood tests and “if it was an opportunity to be less invasive, it was tantalizing.”
Gould had previously had three miscarriages, and Theranos’ tests indicated that she could once again suffer from “a threatened abortion or potentially a total loss of pregnancy,” Zachman said. But additional test results from a competitor of Theranos indicated that Gould’s pregnancy went well, and she then carried the baby to term and delivered without any problems.
Gould, herself a medical assistant whose duties included drawing blood from other patients, said she had her finger pricked at a local Walgreens in Phoenix.
“It was a little confusing, the information contradictory,” Gould said, describing the gap between the Theranos tests and those she got afterwards that showed the correct values. She never returned to Theranos, she said, because “I didn’t feel like I could trust her.”
SecDef’s old reputation
James Mattis, the former US Secretary of Defense and four-star general, has recounted how he has lost faith in Theranos over the past three years or so as a member of the company’s board of directors. Mattis is the first of Holmes’ well-known associates to testify – a list that also includes media mogul Rupert Murdoch and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
After a certain point, he declared that he “didn’t know what to believe about Theranos anymore. I didn’t see why we were surprised by such fundamental issues.”
A glimpse of Holmes’ cell phone
Some text messages were posted and read in court, and they indicated that Holmes and Balwani were aware of the issues Theranos was facing.
“The Normandy lab is a disaster area. I’m glad I came here. I’ll work to resolve this issue,” read a text from Balwani in November 2014, referring to one of the test facilities at Theranos.
In messages sent to Balwani days earlier, Holmes said, “Basically we have to stop fighting fires by not creating them. We have to fix the root cause here.”
“There is too much hype around Theranos and you,” one of his texts read to him. “FYI, I’m worried about overexposure with no solid substance that’s lacking right now.”
A rushed launch
Adam Rosendorff, who was laboratory director for Theranos from April 2013 to November 2014, testified on Friday. Rosendorff said he left Theranos for many reasons, one of which was the pressure to vouch for tests he did not trust.
“I came to believe that the company believed more in public relations and fundraising than in patient care… the platform did not allow me to function effectively as a laboratory manager,” said said Rosendorff.
When interviewing for the job, Rosendorff said he was impressed by Holmes and Balwani’s “seriousness and dedication”, believing the company could be the next Apple.
Rosendorff described the events leading up to the commercial launch of the Theranos devices in September 2013 as extremely rushed and hasty, as Holmes struggled to keep the board and investors happy. Less than 10 days before launch, Rosendorff said none of the tests had been validated for patient care.
Rosendorff has expressed concerns about inaccurate test results and his desire to push the launch date back to Holmes in his office. He said Holmes was clearly nervous, but not surprised by the issues raised.
“She was shaking a little, her knee was pounding, her voice was breaking,” Rosendorff said.
Holmes insisted on the launch and told him that instead of using Theranos technology, they would use conventional analyzers.
Rosendorff will testify further when the trial resumes on Tuesday.
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