14th November 2012 | by MFC Team
Preventing a fertility disaster: NYU Fertility Center saves eggs and embryos during Hurricane Sandy
Numerous embryos housed at the NYU Fertility Center located in Manhattan were rescued following a power outage caused by Hurricane Sandy. The center’s incubators – which typically house embryos at womb-temperature – began to cool after the facility’s back-up generator ran out of gas. Since embryos need to be maintained in a warm environment, the clinic director, Dr. James Grifo, lead his team in a successful rescue mission to save the embryos – carrying five-gallon cans of diesel fuel up unlit stairwells to keep the generator running, and eventually transferring the embryos into liquid nitrogen where they would be safe.
In-vitro fertilization (IVF) is expensive. According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the average cost of one IVF cycle is $12,400. It is not unusual to have to undergo more than one cycle before treatment is successful. And infertility and the IVF treatment process are often very stressful for women and their partners. So the fact that the eggs and embryos of numerous couples were saved during the Hurricane would have been a huge relief for those seeking fertility treatments at Dr. Grifo’s clinic.
Read more about this story here:
Sandy’s most delicate rescue was fertility clinic’s embryos [ABC News Online]
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