Couple Sues for $15 Million After All Their Embryos Were Destroyed in IVF Company Error

In vitro fertilization is an intense process for couples trying to have a baby. Not only is it emotionally, physically, and mentally taxing, it’s expensive. So if the exhausting process for some reason doesn’t work, it is often devastating for all involved.

A California couple was gutted to find out that their IVF cycle had to be destroyed. But when they found out that it was due to an error made by the company handling the embryos, they were livid. Now they are suing the company for its costly mistake.

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The couple had already endured several rounds of IVF.

Couple talking to doctor
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Margarita Komarova and her husband Colin McDarmont underwent their fourth round of IVF in November 2023. The couple told Business Insider the process produced six embryos, and “everything was tracking positive.”

So, the couple didn’t know what to think when their doctor told them seven days later that none of the embryos had developed and therefore were not suitable for transfer.

The couple was heartbroken and confused.

“We were devastated,” Komarova said. “We thought we’d done everything right before the retrieval.” That included healthy eating, and using acupuncture and yoga as forms of stress release. Komarova, 37, also said that having to inject herself with hormones was a taxing experience.

She shared that the company discarded the embryos almost immediately. “You find yourself searching for answers,” she said. “We started to blame ourselves — and each other — because we didn’t know what had gone wrong.”

Soon, they learned that they weren't the problem.

Close up In the fertility laboratory the Doctor preparing embryo cultivation plates
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Three weeks after the ordeal began, the couple received an email from their fertility clinic. In the email, the clinic said there was an issue with the IVF “culture media,” the liquid used in the technique to grow embryos. The couple learned that the outcome of their cycle “may have been negatively impacted” by this issue. According to McDarmont, the pair “had a lot of questions.”

In January 2024, they found out about a recall notice sent to fertility clinics from CooperSurgical, the pharmaceutical company that manufactures the solution used in the procedure. The company established that three lots of the solution were missing magnesium, a nutrient key to embryo development in the lab.

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Now, they're suing CooperSurgical for its costly mistake.

Court sentencing
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Komarova and McDarmont took legal action against the company, saying that they fear for their chances of having a biological child. The lawsuit says that CooperSurgical failed to implement proper quality control and testing. The couple paired with a law firm representing other couples who were also likely impacted by the error.

“We’re hoping this will force them to provide actual information and details in terms of how this happened, and more importantly, the safeguards to prevent it from ever happening again,” McDarmont said. In the suit, the couple say the company’s “reckless disregard” has left them feeling “distraught they may never be able to start the family they imagined.”

The couple detailed some of the hardships they faced after the loss.

According to the lawsuit, Komarova struggled for weeks with abdominal pain, weight gain, and fluctuating moods from the hormone injections used in the failed retrieval process. Additionally, she dealt with “significant physical strain due to the original wasted cycle, as well as the new cycle necessitated” by the “faulty product” CooperSurgical produced.

The lawsuit was filed where CooperSurgical is located, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Komarova and McDarmont requested a jury trial, and seek at least $15,000,000 in damages.