3 Women and Couple Awarded $15 Million After Fertility Clinic Tank Ruins Eggs, Embryos: 'Painful'

Vanessa Etienne
·2 min read

IVAN COURONNE/AFP via Getty

A federal jury's verdict on Thursday resulted in five victims being awarded nearly $15 million after a fertility clinic's storage tank malfunction destroyed over 3,500 frozen eggs and embryos.

The historic verdict is the first to award damages to those who cannot have biological children due to faulty equipment, CNN reported. The money will reportedly go to three women who lost eggs and a married couple who lost embryos.

The case dates back to March 2018, when the Pacific Fertility Center revealed that equipment in their cryogenic storage laboratory "lost liquid nitrogen for a brief period of time," ruining the viability of some frozen embryos.

During the trial, the three women and the couple spoke about the impact the incident has had on their lives. Chloe Poynton, 39, lost nine stored eggs, the Associated Press reported.

"It's really painful to be at a baby shower celebrating someone else's family being built and knowing inside you'll never get that," Poynton said during her testimony, per the AP. "So you start to pull back. You start to isolate."

"We are truly sorry this happened and for the anxiety that this will surely cause," Pacific Fertility Center said in an apology after the incident in 2018, CNN reported.

RELATED: Bachelor Alum Sarah Herron 'Nervous' About Starting IVF After 'Rollercoaster' Fertility Struggle

A lawyer for Chart Industries Inc., which manufactured the cryogenic tank that stored the specimens, said the fertility center was responsible for the tank failure, according to the AP. However, "jurors rejected the argument that the tank had been misused or improperly modified," per the outlet.

Hundreds of others have also sued the clinic and Chart over the incident, the AP reported.

RELATED VIDEO: Rebel Wilson Shares That She 'Got Some Bad News' in Candid Post About Fertility Struggles

The verdict states that Chart became aware of the defect after the tank was sold but failed to recall the equipment or fix the problem. Jurors found Chart to be 90% responsible and negligent for not recalling the equipment and Pacific Fertility Center to be 10% responsible and negligent for harm, awarding the victims damages for "pain, suffering, and emotional distress" and the value of the lost eggs.

Pacific Fertility Center and Chart attorneys did not immediately responded to PEOPLE's request for comment.