IVF clinic sued for allegedly dumping embryos
A couple has filed a lawsuit against a Beverly Hills IVF clinic, alleging that employees lacked training and that the clinic negligently disposed of their embryos.
LOS ANGELES – A couple sued a fertility clinic Tuesday for allegedly disposing of their embryos and making it likely that the couple will never have children biologically related to them.
Marissa Calhoun and Stephen Castaneda filed the suit against Reproductive Partners Medical Group Inc., alleging negligence, negligent hiring and supervision, conversion and discharge. They are seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
A representative for RPMG did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case.
The lawsuit listed the doctor as Dr. Andy Huang, who treated Kim Kardashian during her “public struggle to conceive a second child with Kanye West” and appeared regularly on Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Kardashian also referred to Dr. Huang as his “IVF wizard”. He also treated other celebrities including Paris Hilton, Chrissy Teigen, Jen Atkin and Khloe Kardashian.
Calhoun’s initial IVF treatment began at RPMG in 2021, when she sought help preserving her fertility by freezing her eggs to achieve her future goal of motherhood, according to the lawsuit, which states in plus she endured three difficult egg retrieval procedures. the years 2021 and 2022.
“Ms. Calhoun and Mr. Castaneda were happy because … they were lucky enough to have enough eggs to have the family they wanted when they were ready to start,” the lawsuit states.
The couple contracted with RPMG to create embryos using Calhoun’s stored eggs and Castaneda’s sperm, according to the suit. Last October, RPMG informed the plaintiffs that all the eggs were fertilized and would be placed in an incubator to develop into viable embryos, according to the suit.
But a few days later, an RPMG doctor told the couple that the company had “discarded and thereby destroyed all of the plaintiffs’ embryos,” the suit alleges.
RPMG eventually admitted that one of its employees failed to label the couple’s embryos before placing them in an incubator, then removed the unlabeled embryos from the incubator and intentionally threw them away, according to the complaint.
As a result, Castaneda and Calhoun may not be able to have children biologically related to them, according to the lawsuit.
Calhoun and Castaneda asked for a full set of their records, but instead were sent a set of documents that only included information before the embryos were thrown away, according to the suit.