A Sherman Oaks woman sued a Beverly Hills fertility clinic and its chief director Thursday for allegedly destroying all of her seven embryos by accident.
Marisa Yukich filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against ART Reproductive Center Inc. and Dr. David L. Hill.
The suit alleges breach of contract, negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress. She seeks $7 million in damages.
A representative for Hill and the clinic did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.
“No amount of money will make this fully right,” Yukich, who will be 39 in a few weeks, said at a morning news conference. “ART Reproductive Center and Dr. Hill threw out my most precious property. My embryos cannot be replaced. This is nothing less than the loss of my future children.
“I still can’t believe ART Reproductive Center did this to me,” she said. “I am devastated.”
The suit states that Yukich had her eggs extracted, fertilized and frozen in 2013. Her cycle of in vitro fertilization produced 14 eggs, 10 of which were fertilized.
“At the end of the process, she had seven viable pre-embryos and one extra vial of sperm from her donor,” the suit states.
In November 2014, Yukich decided to have the extra vial of sperm destroyed and she sent ART properly notarized papers, according to the suit.
“She even underlined the word ‘sperm’ so there would be no confusion about the fact that she wanted the fertilized embryos to be preserved,” the suit states.
However, Hill called Yukich last Sept. 22 and told her that the seven viable embryos were destroyed, the suit states.
Although the embryos were presumably destroyed a year earlier, no one from the clinic called to inform her until last fall, the suit alleges.
“As a result of ART’s destruction of Marisa’s pre-embryos, she has lost irreplaceable and highly valuable property,” according to the lawsuit. “Marisa viewed the embryos as her future children.”
Yukich is now almost three years older than she was when she started the IVF process and her chances of producing viable eggs again are diminished, the suit states.
