'Heartbroken' couples claim California IVF clinic implanted dead and toxic embryos into women to cover up errors

A leading IVF clinic knowingly implanted dead embryos into would-be mothers in an attempt to cover up their fatal mistakes, a lawsuit claims.

Nine California couples allege that bungling lab workers at Ovation Fertility destroyed the embryos with harmful cleaning chemicals during storage.

The suit says that the embryos would have died 'instantly' when they were put in storage, and that workers then knowingly implanted 'these dead embryos into the would-be mothers.'

The clinic did so, according to the lawsuit, despite the risks of complications such as ectopic pregnancy, where the embryo implants in a fallopian tube rather than in the womb.

One couple, Brooke Berger, and Bennett Hardy, now 37 and 33, said they were 'heartbroken' after discovering Ovation Fertility might have destroyed their last two embryos, which were their final hope to start a family.

Brooke and Bennett trusted Ovation Fertility with their last two embryos in their fifth round of IVF

The pair met nearly 12 years ago while at school and have been married for four years

'I still have nerve pain from those injections, that takes months to go away. My husband was rearranging his work so that he could administer these medications for me,' Ms Berger said

'When we found out that there was no way this would have ended in a successful pregnancy, we were just so disappointed and heartbroken,' Ms Berger said.

'It was devastating physically and emotionally to learn that after I had endured all the injections, medications, and painful and invasive procedures, it ultimately was for nothing,' she added.

'It just feels very disrespectful. To have no acknowledgement of guilt on their part, to trying to silence us. 

'It's just so disrespectful to not be treated as a priority for that, to not have them convey any understanding of the damage they have caused - us and many other people. I'm just shocked that they're treating us so poorly.' Ms Berger.

'Seeing [my wife] go through all this physically and mentally, and then for this to happen, it's really frustrating,' Mr Hardy said.

Ovation Fertility is a national storage treatment and IVF laboratory in Newport Beach that bills itself as one of the US' leading fertility labs.

The company offers IVF, where an egg is fertilized by sperm in a test tube and then the resulting embryo is inserted into a woman.

Ovation also offers 'safe, secure short and long-term storage for frozen eggs, sperm and embryos,' the website says.

A single IVF cycle — including genetic testing — is estimated at $25,000.

But the new lawsuit alleges Ovation 'hired inexperienced, cheap, unqualified, and untrained employees to cut corners and maximize profits - at the expense of the health and safety of its patients and their embryos.'

The filing claims that a lab embryologist wrongly used hydrogen peroxide or a similar cleaning agent instead of a sterile solution like distilled water in the incubator that stored the frozen embryos.

All nine couples claim Ovation used high quality embryos which should have had a 75 percent or above chance of success from January 18 to January 30.

But the odds were zero percent because the clinic knowingly used nonviable embryos, according to the complaint, and none of the women became pregnant.

Ms Berger and Mr Hardy moved to Orange County, Calfornia, in July last year, and shipped their remaining two frozen embryos to their new doctor, who used Ovation labs. It would be their fifth round of IVF.

Ms Berger had already undergone months of hormone shots, as well invasive and risky medical procedures to retrieve eggs and prepare for implantation. 

'I still have nerve pain from those injections, that takes months to go away. My husband was rearranging his work so that he could administer these medications for me,' she said.

Ovation Fertility is a national storage treatment and IVF laboratory in Newport Beach, offering 'safe, secure short and long-term storage for frozen eggs, sperm and embryos'

'When we found out that there was no way this would have ended in a successful pregnancy, we were just so disappointed and heartbroken,' Ms Berger said

'And then this whole time, we're just trying to maintain hope that all of what you're doing is worth it, that you're gonna get something out of it in the end.'

The implantation procedure at Ovation was 'uncomfortable', Ms Berger said. 

'They insert a catheter into your uterus, which is a very uncomfortable procedure and then you supposedly wait for them to check to make sure the embryos are viable. 

'There was a several minute delay just laying there in this uncomfortable position, trying to breathe through that pain - you're not given any pain management for that.

'Then they really quickly transfer it over, you can see where [the embryos] go into the uterus on an ultrasound. 

'The doctor said everything went really well, they were placed well, and that he thought we had a good chance.'

'Little did they know that their embryos were already dead due to Ovation's wrongdoing,' the lawsuit said. 

The couple then had an agonizing 12 day wait, hoping to see a positive pregnancy test at the end that would never come.

'That week is actually really, really difficult,' Ms Berger said. 'You're still doing the medications, you're still keeping up with all.

'Every twinge you feel in your body, you're wondering,  is that a sign that this is going well, if this is taking? Because it's in your own body, it's impossible to escape that. You're thinking about it all the time. 

'It was devastating physically and emotionally to learn that after I had endured all the injections, medications, and painful and invasive procedures, it ultimately was for nothing,' Ms Berger said 

The filing claims that a lab embryologist wrongly used hydrogen peroxide or a similar cleaning agent instead of a sterile solution like distilled water in the incubator that stored the frozen embryos (stock image)

'When you finally get that negative pregnancy test, it's very hard to cope with.'

Some of the other couples involved in the litigation even endured risky and painful medical procedures, such as hysteroscopies and biopsies, to determine if something went wrong on their end. 

A hysteroscopy involves a surgeon looking inside your uterus via a camera attached to a tube to diagnose and treat abnormalities, while a biopsy involves testing a tissue sample from the uterus lining.

The couples only began to find out that something dodgy had happened after several of the couples fertility doctors questioned why there was an 100 percent failure rate for the embryos that had been thawed over that two week period, when the success rate was normally above 75 percent.

Another married couple, only named as TS and KS in the complaint, started their IVF journey in 2023.

Only two out of their 12 retrieved eggs were successfully fertilized and deemed implantable. 

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'We had hope, a lot of hope, as we had one very high-grade, high-quality female embryo, plus one low-grade, low-quality male embryo. We took our best chances, and transferred our girl - named Kalani Noelle - on January 29, 2024. She was meant to complete our family,' the couple said.

But unfortunately they never became pregnant. 'Our hearts are broken, and we will forever mourn the loss of our girl embryo,' they said. 

Now Ovation has been bombarding Ms Berger with phone calls to try and 'sweep the matter under the rug, attempting to trick patients into signing waivers of their claims and non-disparagement agreements,' the lawsuit said.

'This whole process with them trying to contact us... it's just so transactional. There's been no apology, no straight answer.

'We shouldn't have to have this lawsuit to figure out what happened to our embryos. It's just not right,' Mr Hardy said.

Ms Berger and Mr Hardy remain desperate to become parents, and plan on attempting another ovarian stimulation cycle.

'If we want to move forward, we're gonna have to go through a whole other stimulation cycle, which is even more medications and monitoring and more procedures. It's a lot more intense, and with no guarantee that we're going to get any more viable embryos out of that process,' she said. 

'I'm almost three years older than when we first retrieved these embryos, and odds do not improve as you age.'

Ms Berger said: 'We want to ensure that Ovation is held accountable... and that this doesn't happen again to other couples who are trying to grow their families.'

Mr Hardy said: 'It's heart-breaking and frustrating thinking about all of the effort we went through, and my wife sacrificing her body physically and mentally with this exhausting process.'

Attorney Robert Marcereau, of the Marcereau Law Group, said: 'Ovation Fertility betrayed the trust of these people in their most vulnerable moments.'

Attorney Michelle Hemesath, of Ikuta Hemesath LLP, said: 'Ovation Fertility touted its supposed expertise to the general public when its operations were riddled with incompetence, as the lawsuit alleges.'

Ovation Fertility has been named in other lawsuits in the past.