Published by Global Banking & Finance Review
Posted
As the one-year anniversary quickly approaches for the destruction of nearly 4000 eggs and embryos at Pacific Fertility Center (PFC), time is running out for more than half of the estimated 600 victims of the tragedy to seek legal help.
In response to the concerns of the PFC victim families, San Francisco law firm Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane (PWCK) warned today that the upcoming one-year anniversary of the incident marks an important deadline for those affected by the 2018 PFC tank failure: Certain legal claims may expire after March 11, 2019 due to statute of limitations. Of the roughly 600 victims of the Pacific Fertility Center disaster, only about 250 have so far sought out legal counsel.
Adam Wolf, attorney and shareholder, Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane, said: “We are incredibly grateful to have been appointed to a leadership position in the Pacific Fertility Center lawsuit by the federal judge overseeing this matter. We want to make sure that all victims of this tragedy are aware that the passage of time could affect their legal rights, and we will continue to aggressively fight for the families that have been affected by this tragedy.”
Tracey Cowan, attorney, Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane, said: “Over the years, we’ve been able to represent the strongest and most amazing families in a number of fertility matters: lost embryos, destroyed embryos, inadequate medical testing, and countless others. Standing beside our clients, we’ve been able to provide a platform for other families to step forward and tell their stories. Moreover, we’ve been able to provide a pathway to recover for their losses.”
Since the March 4, 2018 tank failure at PFC, in which a cryo-preservation tank holding nearly four thousand eggs and embryos failed, fewer than half of the potential number of families and individuals have signed up to file legal claims against Pacific Fertility Center, Prelude Fertility, Inc., and Chart Industries.
According to the lawsuit, shortly after the PFC tank failure, Chart Industries, the manufacturer of the cryo-preservation tank, issued a recall of several cryo-preservation tanks citing reported “vacuum leak or failure” issues.
Despite ongoing attempts to have the lawsuits removed from San Francisco federal court and sent to confidential and binding arbitrations, PWCK has been leading efforts to keep the Pacific Fertility case in a public forum. PWCK is fighting to uncover exactly what caused the cryo-preservation tanks to fail and how the failure might have been avoided.
Attorney Cowan added: “From our years of experience in representing hundreds of individuals impacted by fertility tragedies, we know that it can be overwhelming. However, we want to ensure that the families affected by Pacific’s tank failure are aware of the potential limitations that come with the passage of time.”
The Pacific Fertility Center tragedy attracted widespread national attention not only because of the scale of the embryos and eggs affected, but also because of the coincidental timing of a very similar incident at University Hospitals Fertility Clinic (UH) in Cleveland, OH. PWCK has also filed a lawsuit in connection with the embryo destruction at UH.
About Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane
Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane is a national law firm with offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Cleveland, St. Louis, and New Orleans. PWCK is nationally recognized for representing victims in which fertility clinics were accused of either destroying or losing eggs and embryos. This is a highly technical area of law and science and, the individuals seeking legal representation in the PFC matter would be well advised to look to a law firm that has successfully handled such cases in the past. https://pacificembryolawsuit.com/
MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Dunlap, 614-706-7672 or [email protected]