WEBVTT - The Embryo Mixup 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:07.080 Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. 0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:14.000 This series features conversations about pregnancy, complications and loss. Please 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:19.360 take care while listening. Dina and b spent years trying 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:24.720 to conceive. They had arduous retrievals, eggs that didn't fertilize, 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:29.040 embryos that didn't take. But now the two women had 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:32.720 made it to another transfer day, and this time was different. 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:36.519 It was special because they were doing reciprocal IVF for 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:40.360 the first time. The embryo that would be transferred into 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:43.920 Dina was made with bees egg. It was a chance 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:47.360 to create a profound connection for them both to their 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:48.479 future baby. 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:52.199 To be as genetically connected as we possibly could, for 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.840 Dina to carry my embryo, to put it, blun cook 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:56.520 my Bun. 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:00.960 Sitting in the exam room of a c in Manhattan, 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:05.040 they eagerly waited for their procedure to start, But now 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:08.080 their doctor was telling them that the clinic had made 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:13.119 a mistake. They don't remember the exact wording, but here's 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:13.840 the gist of it. 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:20.240 There's been a situation where the embryo you chose to 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:25.880 be defrusted was not and we defrusted a different embryo, 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:32.280 one that belonged to Dina, So they didn't defrost mine, 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:34.120 they defrusted Dina's. 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:39.040 Was this kind of the reason behind and the significance 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:42.600 behind why you wanted to carry each other's embryos? Was 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:45.160 that something that you had shared with your doctor? 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:48.600 Oh yeah, they knew. The nurses and the doctors all knew. 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:52.600 As Dina and b tried to process what was happening, 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:55.080 their doctor also looked rattled. 0:01:55.720 --> 0:01:58.800 You could tell she felt awful. 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:01.720 Here's more fun could not stop apologizing. 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:07.080 At one point, she brought in the clinics embriologists to explain. Now, 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:12.120 the embryologist isn't someone that patients usually interact with, but 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:15.440 they do very important work in IVF. These are the 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:18.799 people that handle eggs, sperm, and embryos. 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:24.359 He wasn't admitting to it being his lab even though 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:27.839 it obviously was, and his oversight. 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:30.880 I mean, god knows what happened as to why. 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:32.840 We don't even know exactly what happened. 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:35.760 Yeah, So they left the room and I think we 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:36.480 both cried. 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:41.400 So it was a plan that we had set out 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:43.640 and talked a lot about in the process, for sure, 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:46.040 and thought it was would have been so cool and 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:50.440 unique and to not have that happen with devastating definitely 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:51.600 one hundred percent. 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:55.160 Dina and B were trying not to panic. 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:58.799 We were in disbelief, to be honest and shuck, So 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:01.040 what what happens now? 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:02.120 What are our options? 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:06.560 So we were absolutely crushed, Yeah, crushed. 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:10.640 And they were confronted with a painful choice what did 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:12.799 they want to do with the embryo that the lab 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:14.320 had mistakenly defrosted? 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:18.440 And the embryologists sort of took over the conversation and 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:24.520 he was like, well, your options are to refreeze the 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:29.839 one that we have defrosted, and we will then defrost 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:37.120 the one you wanted and we'll transfer that, or we 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:39.840 do the transfer with the one that we have defrosted. 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:46.560 You don't even refreeze chicken. We're not refreezing an embryo. 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:48.240 How can you do. 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:52.680 That to something that could potentially be a baby? 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.960 Dina and B had reason to be skeptical about this. 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:01.880 Studies show that the process of thawing and refreezing can 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:05.520 risk eroding the quality of an embryo. Because of this, 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:10.640 experts told me it's relatively uncommon to thaw twice. They 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:13.680 told me it's still possible to get pregnant, but it 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:16.560 really depends on the quality of the embryo at the outset. 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:22.000 Nothing is every one hundred percent guaranteed. But as Dina 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:25.400 and B remember it, the kind Body embryologists said, the 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:28.800 chances of the embryo transfer leading to a pregnancy would 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:33.159 be unchanged. Dina and B just weren't buying it. 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:37.120 To a point where you're definitely calling bullshit, Like, yeah, 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:40.200 you were unbelieving it in no way. And also we 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:44.159 didn't have many embryos at all. Every single one was 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:45.680 so precious and valuable. 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:49.599 The embryology lab is the heart of a fertility clinic. 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:53.080 In here, patient's hopes of making a baby are in 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:57.680 the hands of embryologists who do painstakingly precise work, and 0:04:57.760 --> 0:05:03.600 the environment has to be just right temperature, humidity, air quality, 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:10.080 all of these things have to be absolutely perfect. When 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:13.400 I first heard about dnnb's embryo mix up, I wondered 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:17.320 if it was an isolated incident. After months of investigating, 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:21.919 I learned that it wasn't. Kind Body didn't deny the 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:26.400 mistakes happened, but didn't comment on specifics other than to 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:30.560 say that it had completed incident reports. The company also 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:35.239 said that accidents happen across the fertility industry. But here's 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:39.040 what makes reporting on fertility so complicated. This is a 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:42.919 field where success is never guaranteed. Even when things go 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:46.599 more or less okay during treatment, heartbreak is built into 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:51.880 the process. So how do you distinguish between inevitable disappointments 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:57.080 and preventable mistakes? How many errors are too many? And 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:01.719 in an industry with little oversight, how would anyone even know? 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:09.560 From Bloomberg and iHeart podcasts, this is IVF disrupted the 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:24.080 kind Body story. I'm Jackie Devolos. I wanted to understand 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:28.280 how the mistake involving Dina and B's embryo occurred and 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:30.680 if this was a one off air or a pattern 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:34.520 of mistakes at kind Body. To do this, I reached 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:38.839 out to dozens of current and former employees. I learned 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:42.280 that in twenty twenty one, the same year that Kindbody 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:45.279 thought the wrong embryo for Dina ANDB at its Brian 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:50.000 Park lab, Kind Body accidentally destroyed two other embryos at 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:54.240 the same location. Former employees told me one was dropped 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:58.360 on the ground, another was damaged after accidentally being left 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:02.240 out in room temperature. This happened to be that patient's 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:06.719 very last embryo. She was offered unlimited free IVF to 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:10.040 make up for the mistake, but she never managed to conceive. 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:14.760 At Kind Body, It's unclear what or who is responsible 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:18.840 for these embryos being mixed up or destroyed, but as 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:22.440 I talked to former employees, some themes started to emerge 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:25.520 about a series of conditions that opened Kind Body up 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:30.880 to mistakes. According to former employees I spoke with, one 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:35.840 of these problems was persistent understaffing. Tracy Sosa, the medical 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:38.880 assistant who worked with Dina NB, said that their clinic 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:41.680 in Princeton didn't have a full time doctor or an 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:46.640 embryology lab even a year after opening Kind Bodies. Solution 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:49.840 was to send doctors who worked in nearby clinics to 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:53.440 see patients in New Jersey, and when patients like Dina 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:56.520 and B needed procedures, they were asked to travel into 0:07:56.600 --> 0:08:01.000 Manhattan to other Kind Body clinics. This isn't standard in 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:04.640 the fertility industry, but Kind Body told its staff it 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:06.040 was a temporary solution. 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:10.960 Here's Tracy, the doctors that did flow through there, they 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:13.559 were just not there on a consistent basis to build 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:17.520 the appropriate retour with the patient base. Not fair to 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:19.760 the patient and not fair to the skeleton grew that 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:21.960 they came there for almost two years. 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:26.080 Meanwhile, Tracy watched while kind Body was opening new clinics 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:28.400 in Atlanta, the Bay Area, in Orlando. 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:31.120 We still didn't have a full time in day and 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.920 they was taking on opening up another time practices. I 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:36.400 bet you take care of the ones that are already 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:39.839 open before you go ahead, Willing Nelly opening up another time. 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:42.880 There were other practices that were already opened that we're 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:46.480 having issues too, not just prime Stay. Why are you opening? 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:48.920 Why do you have plans knocking down holes for another ten? 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:51.599 Kind Body, Disney, kind Body. 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:53.520 This get them, It's stop your nonsense. 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:58.800 In comments for this podcast, kind Body said it's common 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:02.000 industry practice for a fertility doctors to work in multiple 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:06.319 locations within a chain of clinics. Tracy said the shuffle 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:10.760 of patients back and forth between locations created confusion and 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:14.760 made staff more vulnerable to making errors. The patients I 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:18.000 spoke with said sometimes details about a treatment plan were 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:23.320 miscommunicated from one nurse to another, or medication dosages got 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:27.440 messed up, or a procedure was scheduled at one clinic, 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:30.520 but the clinic performing that procedure didn't get the memo. 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:34.360 And even when patients did end up at Kind Bodies 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:37.520 clinics in Manhattan, whether it was in Bryant Park or 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:41.120 Flat Iron, those locations were also struggling. 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:45.760 We were bare bones with staff trying to be able 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:50.439 to see patients. Although that's what it's supposed to be about, 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:53.360 that was always the least important part to them. 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:56.840 We're calling this woman Lauren. We are not using her 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:00.120 real name. She and some others you'll hear from and 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:03.800 the series asked for anonymity because Kind Body has threatened 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:07.520 legal action against employees they believed were talking to journalists. 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:10.400 We agreed to have a voice actor read, which she 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:13.760 told us in an interview. Lauren was part of Kind 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:16.480 Body's clinical staff in New York's Brian Park and Flat 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:18.080 Iron clinics in twenty twenty one. 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:21.280 They wanted to spend money on the things that were 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:25.600 seen outwardly. Every week, we had huge bouquets of flowers 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:28.360 in the office. They did a lot of videos. They 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:32.920 had professional photographers, professional videographers coming in to do all 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:37.600 these things. All that was way more important than medical care. 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:41.400 They didn't want a staff, and so they went from 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:44.880 four nurses to one. And they quit because they kept 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:48.400 being told, well, we're a startup. We just need you 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:51.280 to buck up. We need you to do the job. 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:54.680 This is what it is. So they'd be working twelve 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:58.240 hour days or more five six plus days a week. 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:00.920 It was just we're going to read the same amount 0:11:00.960 --> 0:11:02.959 of existing work over those who were left. 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:07.400 During this time, she says, the turnover also started to 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:10.840 affect the most important part of an IVF clinic, the 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:15.120 embryology lab. I reached out to former lab employees who 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:17.160 told me it was hard to keep up with the 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:21.200 mounting patient load and that training for new staff was rushed. 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:26.120 They also said that lab leadership kept changing and embryologists 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:30.360 were on the verge of burnout. So former employees said 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:34.040 kind Body had major staffing problems, But they also said 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:37.679 the company wasn't spending enough money on the labs themselves. 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:42.319 I was brought on as the lead embryologist with potential 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:45.960 to have some input and ideology about how this is 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:46.840 going to be built out. 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:51.120 That's Stephanie Maddie. Stephanie had been working as an embryologist 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:53.600 for about seven years when she was recruited by kind 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:57.400 Body in twenty nineteen. These were the early startup days 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:00.320 when kind Body was offering hormone testing from the bright 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:04.520 yellow bus. They hadn't completed construction on their first clinic yet. 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:08.360 Stephanie specialized in egg freezing, but the company wanted her 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:11.239 help in thinking about how to build out their embryology 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:15.120 labs in IVF practice. Soon after she started the job, 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:19.079 she started to feel concerned and began asking questions. 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:22.080 How can we establish ourselves so that we are building 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:24.640 a lab and what is our goal? These were just 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:28.960 never conversations that were had or topics that seemed to 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:30.240 come forth. 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:33.920 Early on, she moved into a brand new clinic on 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:37.280 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan along with other kind Body staff, 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:40.760 and while she was impressed by its entrance and waiting room, 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:44.880 she says that behind the scenes, the lab facilities were lacking. 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.600 For one, there was no embryology lab at the new office, 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:54.680 and while it did have a seaman analysis lab, she says, 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:57.040 the way it was set up felt like an afterthought. 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:02.920 They literally built it into this closet space. You would 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:06.360 open the door, and basically it was a very awkward shape. 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:09.960 It went to a point in the back. It's supposed 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:13.079 to be a utility closet. It's not supposed to It's 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:16.040 not a room, it's not an office, it's a utility closet. 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:20.080 It seemed like so much money was being invested into 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:23.200 like what it looked like forward facing. I was so 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:26.280 surprised that it was like, oh no, no, we're doing 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:30.080 Seaman analysis in basically this tiny closet space. 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:33.880 The company told her a bigger space was coming, but 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:37.240 for now, this was where her work had to be done. 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:42.720 We had one dusk up against the wall, and usually 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:46.720 you'd want a hood of some kind because if fumes 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:49.760 are any kind of pathogens, and granted, as embryologists, we 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:52.920 took every precaution necessary to be able to maintain a 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:56.520 proper standard. When you have so much money being fueled 0:13:56.520 --> 0:13:58.240 into a company, and then you know, you go to 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:01.680 the back and this is what you're dealing with. I've 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:06.880 worked in everything from fully funded hospital labs, things like 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:10.079 ventilation are super important and things like that which had 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:12.880 not been established into the building, and this was just 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:14.720 kind of like, you know what they called like a 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:19.280 temporary situation. But it was just frustrating to see that again, 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:22.680 I'm not like, I don't run businesses, but I do 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:26.680 understand laboratories. And my specialty comes from, you know, being 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:29.920 in different all different kinds of labs because when we're 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:32.200 walking into our labs, we have to know what's going 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:34.400 on because it directly affects our embryos. 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:40.240 Ventilation systems are important because they filter out toxic fumes, 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:44.160 vapors or dusts that could harm the sample. And embryologists 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:46.040 is handling things like. 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:50.600 You know, acid, aldehydes, styrene, which you know polystyreneates plastics. 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:53.720 You know, a lot of this can come from petroleum products, 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:58.000 so road construction glues, you know, laying down carpets, laying 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:00.480 down tiles. There's a lot of these things that though 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:03.400 what we call their embryotoxic. You know, these things get 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:05.160 into your air, get into your incubators. 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:06.160 You know, they can. 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:10.440 Really affect how embryos grow they gave it affect pregnancy rates. 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:14.280 This is Eva Schenkman. She's been an embryologist for over 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:18.360 thirty years. After working for fertility clinics all over the 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:20.800 East Coast, she struck out on her own as a 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:26.040 consultant and started a training program for aspiring embryologists. Around 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:28.200 the time the first couple of kind Body clinics were 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:32.760 cropping up. Kind Body's founder, Gina courted her in hopes 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:35.400 of bringing Eva on board to run some of its labs, 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:38.600 and Eva said she had some questions. 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:44.200 It had a very, very nice pitch, but I'm more 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:47.440 interested in the science behind the labs than the front room. 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:49.400 I want to see the back room. I don't care 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:51.920 about your front room. I wanted to know more about 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:54.120 the air handling systems they were building in the lab, 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:56.440 what sort of technology they were incorporating. 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:00.640 Think of air handling systems like a protective shield for 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:06.080 the lab. Things like HVAC systems regulate temperature, humidity, and 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:10.560 air quality to create the ideal environment for embryos to thrive. 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:15.160 Even the smallest disruption in these conditions could affect whether 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:18.360 an IVF procedure succeeds or fails. 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:21.600 I've worked at a lab where we saw a drop 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:25.800 in pregnancy rates and it was later attributed to the 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:29.880 building over was getting the roof retarmaced for the helicopter pad, 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:34.760 and our air intake system was just downwind from where 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:37.480 the helipad was going to be, so as they were 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:41.240 pouring all of that asphalt and all of those petroleum 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:44.880 based products. That stuff was getting sucked right into our 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:45.760 HVAC system. 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:49.880 So Eva was skeptical about kind Body's founding strategy of 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:55.240 putting everything labs and clinics under one roof in places 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:56.800 with lots of foot traffic. 0:16:56.960 --> 0:16:59.480 Putting things in a retail heavy section, whether it's near 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:02.880 a soul's sidechael or yoga or something else. It's like 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:06.200 putting a scientific lab in a mall. You're gonna have issues. 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:08.760 You got it probably close to the roof because you 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:11.440 need to usually mount those systems on the roof. These 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:13.320 air handling systems, they're not cheap. 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:17.080 Eva said she noticed the labs were small, but she 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:19.639 said kind Body told her that these labs were just 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:24.040 a starting point. Bigger labs would be built down the line. 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:28.320 But Eva also saw that some of Kindbody's leases were 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:32.080 as short as five years in some cases. It didn't 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:34.840 seem plausible to her that they would be rebuilt in 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:37.720 time to manage the flow of patients that kind Body 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:38.480 was aiming for. 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:41.240 Just seemed like it was setting it up for these 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:45.040 were going to be very short staffed. Labs weren't up 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:46.800 to the size that I would have said that they 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:49.280 needed for the volume that they wanted to. 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:52.800 Do, Eva said, conversations with kind Body fizzled out. 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:55.639 I would rather align myself with a project where I 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:57.680 can build a lab and I want it to be 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:00.320 one of the best labs out there that is going 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:03.800 to be providing a safe environment for these embryos. I 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:06.720 would have been very frustrated if that wasn't something that 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:07.480 I was free to do. 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:11.480 As for Stephanie, she said that to her, all of this, 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:15.240 the tiny lab and the mcguivred closet, the promises of 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:20.320 upgrades down the line, revealed what kind Body was actually prioritizing. 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:22.800 As much as they were spending money, it seemed like 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:26.679 forward facing and developing the front facing clinics like the 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:30.040 facades I called them. There was constantly this, Okay, how 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:33.479 can we save money, how can we cut costs? It 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:37.720 was just again shocking to see so many offices opening up, 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:42.840 and while that was happening, our embryology program felt like 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:44.240 it was falling behind all of that. 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:52.080 Disillusioned, Stephanie quit after just a few months. In the 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:56.280 year after she left, Kindbody opened four clinics and started 0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:59.119 to pick up the pace. At one point in twenty 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:02.399 twenty one, there was a new clinic about every other month. 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:05.560 I talked to a former employee who was hired to 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:08.800 help with the expansion during this time. He also asked 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:12.280 for anonymity to discuss kind Body A voice actor is 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:14.720 reading what he told me that is. 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:18.600 An astronomical growth spurt. When I was brought on, there 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:21.439 were some problems with projects that were already underway. 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:25.919 This included Brian Park, where former employees told me HVAC 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:30.160 issues were a constant problem, but more issues cropped up. 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:33.919 In Austin. Employees told me that a sewer pipe that 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:37.760 released foul smelling gases into the clinic took weeks to fix. 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:42.919 In Atlanta, the ceiling above the nursing station collapsed and 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:46.000 unleashed a flood of water from the vent. When I 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:49.960 asked kind Body about these incidents, it acknowledged the disruptions, 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:54.760 saying the company took immediate action and that no patients, tissue, 0:19:55.080 --> 0:20:00.600 or embryos were directly impacted. But former employees said that 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:04.160 instead of slowing down and fixing issues at existing clinics, 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:08.560 the company just kept opening new ones. The employee who 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:12.680 worked on expansion, said, Kind Bodies rush to open clinics 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:14.320 started to catch up with the company. 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:18.160 And what's so unfortunate is everything needs to stay perfect 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:23.160 in these circumstances, because how fragile the situation is. And again, 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:25.719 I think a lot of that was the hype of 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:29.359 how amazing kind Body should be and can be, and 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:31.520 it was a real pressing on all of us to 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:37.119 go faster, faster, faster, faster, faster. And when you go faster, 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:40.639 sometimes you miss an exit, sometimes you run off the 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:43.520 road a little bit, and you just got to keep going. 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:56.800 We'll be right back. Dina and b, the couple from 0:20:56.800 --> 0:21:00.560 New Jersey, knew nothing about the concerns Embryology had raised 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:03.359 about Kind Body's early labs when Dina was sitting on 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:06.720 the exam table hearing that kind Body had defrosted the 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:10.560 wrong embryo. And remember they were up in New York 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:14.160 at the Bryant Park clinic because their clinic in Princeton 0:21:14.400 --> 0:21:19.240 didn't even have a lab or an embryologist. But here 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:22.600 they were, and now they had to decide what to 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:23.199 do next. 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:29.160 We couldn't take a risk now of this refreezing process. 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:32.840 At this point, Dina and B say, they didn't trust 0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:37.560 the doctor or the embryologist. They didn't have time to 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:41.120 consult family, a friend, or another medical provider. 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:46.879 So we were like, okay, absolutely devastated. Let's just put 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:51.040 that aside because we'll handle that later. We were like, Okay, 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:54.800 we've quickly got to shake that off because we've a 0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:58.359 got to make a decision and b got to be 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:01.760 really happy with the decision because we know so much 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:06.080 of a successful transfer is in your mindset and for 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:11.440 your body to be aligned chemically with good vibes. Let's 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:15.040 get positive and excited about whatever decision we're about to make. 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:18.480 We don't want to refreeze whatever you have defrusted. We're 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:21.040 going to go ahead and do the transfer. And they 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:22.680 were like, okay, great. 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:22.919 Let's go. 0:22:26.280 --> 0:22:30.040 Ten days later, they found out Dina wasn't pregnant. 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:34.159 Well, with any unsuccessful transfers, we were pretty devastated, but 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:36.239 I think with this one it was even more of 0:22:36.320 --> 0:22:37.600 a slab in the face. 0:22:37.640 --> 0:22:38.560 We were just scutted. 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:41.520 That was a whole other set of emotions with that, 0:22:41.560 --> 0:22:45.280 because knowing what could have happened or what happened was 0:22:45.320 --> 0:22:49.399 another whole spiral down mentally and emotionally for us. You 0:22:49.480 --> 0:22:52.320 trust in people and doctors and whatnot, and you put 0:22:52.359 --> 0:22:53.920 all your good faith in them. 0:22:54.320 --> 0:22:57.920 Tracy Sosa, the medical assistant who had bonded with Dina 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:00.919 and B at the clinic in Princeton, remembers how she 0:23:01.000 --> 0:23:03.960 felt when she heard that the wrong embryo was defrosted for. 0:23:03.920 --> 0:23:07.119 Them, and I was like, what happened? I could not 0:23:07.359 --> 0:23:09.359 believe my ears. 0:23:09.600 --> 0:23:12.200 Human error does happen, But you have to make sure 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:17.000 that all the chains of command are followed and ID 0:23:17.160 --> 0:23:20.000 numbers are met. It's not just by name, it's not 0:23:20.040 --> 0:23:22.440 just by date of birth. I'm like shaken just thinking 0:23:22.480 --> 0:23:25.440 about it, because that's something that's just hammered into Europe, Like, 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:27.679 oh my god, the chain of command, the hands that 0:23:27.680 --> 0:23:28.399 that goes through. 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:32.160 Dina and B told me that in the weeks after 0:23:32.200 --> 0:23:36.000 the wrong embryo was defrosted, kind Body went into damage 0:23:36.040 --> 0:23:38.200 control mode. 0:23:37.520 --> 0:23:43.360 And they offered all their apologies and whatever, yeah, their 0:23:43.400 --> 0:23:44.480 lip service. 0:23:44.520 --> 0:23:47.000 To make up for the error. They offered to make 0:23:47.040 --> 0:23:50.639 the next transfer free of charge. Kind Body went to 0:23:50.720 --> 0:23:53.639 great lengths to assure Dina and B that this was 0:23:53.640 --> 0:23:57.560 a one off incident, that it had been handled. I 0:23:57.600 --> 0:23:59.879 wrote an article about lab errors at kind Body in 0:24:00.040 --> 0:24:03.399 October twenty twenty three, which included the embryo mix up 0:24:03.440 --> 0:24:07.440 with DNNB. I asked kind Body about that incident and 0:24:07.600 --> 0:24:10.840