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Speaker 1: On the morning of Friday, April fifth, twenty twenty four,

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Speaker 1: Mary Shaker walks into the Center for Reproductive Health and

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Speaker 1: takes a seat in the waiting room. It's the same

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Speaker 1: day as Sydney's appointment, though the two women don't know

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Speaker 1: each other. Like Sydney, Mary is also getting ready for

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Speaker 1: an embryo transfer. For the past few weeks, she's been

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Speaker 1: taking fertility drugs and coming into the clinic regularly for

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Speaker 1: blood work and ultrasounds.

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Speaker 2: I always have to take time off to go and

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Speaker 2: do all these appointments off work, and so I always

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Speaker 2: picked the earliest appointment possible.

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Speaker 1: Mary's transfer is about a week away, and she's counting

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Speaker 1: down the days.

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Speaker 2: I'm like just hoping that things are looking good and

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Speaker 2: we're progressing forward. I mean, I just remember being excited

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Speaker 2: that we were in the process of starting another transfer

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Speaker 2: that could lead to having a family.

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Speaker 1: Mary and Sydney's appointment and are the same morning, and

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Speaker 1: yet they're very different. Sydney leaves the clinic in a

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Speaker 1: panic with her world turned upside down, but Mary's appointment

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Speaker 1: isn't particularly notable at all.

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Speaker 3: So at eight am, I show up and reception is

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Speaker 3: acting normal. I got my blood drawn. It was a

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Speaker 3: different lady than the normal forbotomist, but I didn't think

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Speaker 3: anything of it because I figured it seems like it

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Speaker 3: was like kind of a contracting company where it was

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Speaker 3: like they sent nurses to different areas anyway. So and

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Speaker 3: then I went and got my ultrasound, the ultrafound nurse

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Speaker 3: technician through my measurements, got dressed, and I left like

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Speaker 3: it was just the normal, checking like it was just normal.

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Speaker 1: Mary finishes up and goes to her job as a

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Speaker 1: veterinary technician. Nothing seems out of the ordinary until later

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Speaker 1: that afternoon.

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Speaker 3: That's when I got a phone call at four pm

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Speaker 3: from my IVS nurse same you know, I'm so sorry

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Speaker 3: to tell you this, but you're transferred being pushed to

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Speaker 3: the following month. I'm livid at that point because I'm

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Speaker 3: already on the drugs, so I am I'm asking questions

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Speaker 3: like what are you talking about? Like my did everything

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Speaker 3: look okay with my blood work? Like is there anything

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Speaker 3: wrong with my ulstreet sound? Like why am I getting pushed?

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Speaker 3: And she just kept saying, you know, we're gonna have

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Speaker 3: a meeting next week. I'll know more next week.

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Speaker 1: The only explanation she gets is that the center is

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Speaker 1: short stuffed, but the nurse instructs her to keep taking

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Speaker 1: the medication she's on, including loupron, a drug that, among

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Speaker 1: other things, stops you from ovulating. You have to inject it,

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Speaker 1: and there are a lot of side effects like joint pain, nausea,

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Speaker 1: hot flashes, and on top of that, it's expensive.

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Speaker 3: Lupron is like one thousand dollars a vile if you

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Speaker 3: don't have insurance, maybe even more it might be like

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Speaker 3: twelve hundred dollars a bio. You know, I just kept thinking, Okay,

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Speaker 3: well I'll just keep taking my leopron, but like update

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Speaker 3: me and like tell me what's going on. I'm like,

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Speaker 3: but I am. I am kissed and care OFFU at

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Speaker 3: this point because I knew something was wrong, Like I

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Speaker 3: knew something was not right with this claim.

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Speaker 1: Mary spends the weekend in anger and confusion. She's gone

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Speaker 1: through a lot to get her body ready for the

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Speaker 1: embryo transfer, and now another setback. Monday morning comes and goes,

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Speaker 1: and Mary hears nothing from the clinic that evening, more

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Speaker 1: than seventy two hours since she spoke with her IVF nurse.

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Speaker 1: Mary's coworker calls her and tells her to turn on

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Speaker 1: the local news now they're airing a piece about the

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Speaker 1: Center for Reproductive Health.

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Speaker 4: For the past two years, the couple's driven to midtown

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Speaker 4: Nashville for fertility treatments at the Center for Reproductive Health. Unexpectedly,

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Speaker 4: at Friday's appointment, a receptionist shared bad news. The staff

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Speaker 4: just received a letter reading, unforeseen circumstances have led to

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Speaker 4: a financial deficit. Regrettably, you will not receive your paychecks tomorrow.

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Speaker 4: As a result, people walked off the job.

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Speaker 3: There.

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Speaker 1: On news Channel five in Nashville is Sydney and her

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Speaker 1: husband Austin.

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Speaker 5: I'm having to feel grief, almost grieving the plans that

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Speaker 5: I had made him, grieving the life that I thought

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Speaker 5: I was going to have this summer.

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Speaker 4: In Nashville news Channel five.

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Speaker 1: Mary is stunned. If this is true, if the clinic

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Speaker 1: is going under, it means her embryo transfer is probably

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Speaker 1: not going to happen either. She doesn't know what to do.

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Speaker 6: I was so confused and scared and sad, and just

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Speaker 6: like angry. It felt like another lost chance to start

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Speaker 6: a family.

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Speaker 1: The next morning, Tuesday, April ninth, Mary's husband decides to

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Speaker 1: go to the Center for Reproductive Health himself to see

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Speaker 1: what's going on. The news report was concerning, but maybe

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Speaker 1: there was some kind of misunderstanding, or maybe the financial

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Speaker 1: issues have been worked out.

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Speaker 6: He wanted to just talk to somebody, like you wanted

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Speaker 6: to know there are somebody there and see if he

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Speaker 6: could get any information, you know, not just from the news,

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Speaker 6: but from somebody at the clinic.

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Speaker 7: Right.

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Speaker 1: Mary's husband says that when he arrives, the clinic doors

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Speaker 1: are unlocked. He walks in and what he sees confirms

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Speaker 1: the couple's fears. There's no one behind the front desk,

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Speaker 1: and the room is quiet except for the phones, which

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Speaker 1: are ringing NonStop. It feels like a ghost town or

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Speaker 1: a scene from one of those disaster movies where everyone's

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Speaker 1: picked up and left mid sentence. On the reception counter

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Speaker 1: is a set of keys with a sticky note that

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Speaker 1: reads thanks for the opportunity.

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Speaker 6: Any bad person could have just literally crawled over the

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Speaker 6: counter and gotten people well medical records. Could have walked

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Speaker 6: around the clinic like there's just nobody there.

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Speaker 1: I'm Melissa Jelson from School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts.

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Speaker 1: This is what happened in Nashville Episode two. The stakeout.

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Speaker 1: Mary isn't the only patient who learns that the Center

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Speaker 1: for Reproductive Health is closing from the news. In the

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Speaker 1: hours after Sydney's news report airs, panic spreads. Patients report

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Speaker 1: calling the clinic and no one picks up. Many send

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Speaker 1: emails to the patient portal with frantic questions. Some request

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Speaker 1: their medical records and get them. Others get no response

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Speaker 1: at all. Even the clinic's website remains unchanged, as if

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Speaker 1: nothing's happened. Sydney, it seems, is the only person with

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Speaker 1: any information, and even hers is limited. Desperate for answers,

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Speaker 1: patients begin tracking her down on social media, flooding her

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Speaker 1: with messages. Is the clinic going to reopen? How did

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Speaker 1: you get your embryos out? What should we do? Sydney

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Speaker 1: can't offer much. She was simply lucky tipped off just

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Speaker 1: before the doors were shut, but she wants to help.

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Speaker 8: I looked at my husband and I was like, I

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Speaker 8: think I'm going to make a Facebook page for all

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Speaker 8: the families that are going through this, because that way

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Speaker 8: we can all just kind of have each other. I

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Speaker 8: don't have the answers, but maybe like all together we

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Speaker 8: can kind of figure out what's going.

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Speaker 1: On Mary quickly joins the group. Even if no one

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Speaker 1: knows much yet, at least they can compare notes, share

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Speaker 1: scraps of intel, and try to piece together what's happening.

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Speaker 6: Everyone's kind of posting, trying to get information, seeing if

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Speaker 6: anybody's gotten through the phone lines, if anyone's gotten an email,

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Speaker 6: because the phone line's just ring and ring and ring.

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Speaker 1: There are patients like Mary and Sidney who have been

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Speaker 1: taking hormonal medications for weeks, preparing their bodies for an

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Speaker 1: embryo transfer. They've already paid for the procedures, procedures now

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Speaker 1: indefinitely on hold. There are patients who aren't actively in treatment,

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Speaker 1: but are storing their embryos there for future use, trusting

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Speaker 1: that they are safe and will be available when they

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Speaker 1: need them. And then there are people like Taylor Turner,

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Speaker 1: whose window to have a child had already been narrowing.

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Speaker 9: You're taught so long, like don't touch another person, or

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Speaker 9: you're going to get pregnant. Like growing up, it was

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Speaker 9: like it's, you know, don't get pregnant, don't get pregnant.

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Speaker 9: So I think I just thought it was going to

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Speaker 9: be an easy.

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Speaker 7: Thing to do.

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Speaker 1: Taylor and her husband had been trying for a few

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Speaker 1: years to get pregnant before they became patients at the

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Speaker 1: Center for Reproductive.

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Speaker 9: Health, seeing people around you getting pregnant, and you know,

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Speaker 9: it feels like every time you open up a social

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Speaker 9: media platform, it's in your face someone's getting pregnant, having

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Speaker 9: their second, their third kid. So it just it's tough.

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Speaker 1: Taylor had just started the fertility process when she got

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Speaker 1: a devastating diagnosis a brain tumor. She needed surgery immediately.

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Speaker 1: Everything else was put on pause. The recovery process was long,

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Speaker 1: but as soon as she was able, Taylor began an

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Speaker 1: egg retrieval cycle. If there was any chance she could

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Speaker 1: have a child using her own eggs, she needed to

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Speaker 1: do this immediately before undergoing radiation.

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Speaker 9: They retrieved nine eggs, five I believe got to the

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Speaker 9: blast desist stage. I maybe butchering that name. I'm sorry

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Speaker 9: if I am.

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Speaker 3: So.

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Speaker 9: Five of them got to that stage, and then we

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Speaker 9: sent them off to get tested.

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Speaker 1: After testing, Taylor ended up with one genetically normal embryo.

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Speaker 9: We have a highly graded boy embryo that we lovingly

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Speaker 9: call five double.

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Speaker 8: A, so we always referred to him as that.

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Speaker 1: This one embryo five double A, which is in storage

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Speaker 1: at the Center for Reproductive Health. Is her only chance

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Speaker 1: for a biological child.

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Speaker 9: I do have a progesterone receptive tumor, and I can't

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Speaker 9: do IVF again. We have a lot banking on the

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Speaker 9: one embryo that we have.

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Speaker 1: Taylor's situation was unique, but the fear and uncertainty she

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Speaker 1: felt wasn't. One patient described that stretch of chaos, not

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Speaker 1: knowing what to do or how to do it, or

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Speaker 1: whether their eggs and embryos were being protected as quote

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Speaker 1: one of the worst experiences of her life. Across the

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Speaker 1: Facebook group, patients were in different stages of treatment, but

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Speaker 1: nearly all were bound by the same anxiety that what

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Speaker 1: they had stored inside the clinic might be lost. For many,

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Speaker 1: those embryos weren't just biological material. They were the result

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Speaker 1: of years of hope, effort, and sacrifice. Patients didn't know

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Speaker 1: what was going on behind the scenes, if doctor Vascuz

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Speaker 1: was working to keep the embryos safe or trying to

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Speaker 1: set up a way for patients to transition care to

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Speaker 1: another clinic. From their perspective, they were on their own.

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Speaker 8: I think me and a couple others realized this is bad.

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Speaker 8: This is not normal. They were just going to ignore us.

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Speaker 8: They weren't gonna write us back, they weren't going to

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Speaker 8: answer us. They had truly closed their clinic. I think

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Speaker 8: that's when we realized, like, we're going to have to

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Speaker 8: do something because they're not going to basically help.

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Speaker 1: The clinic doesn't release a statement until April sixteenth, a

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Speaker 1: full week after Sydney goes public. It assures patients that

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Speaker 1: they have and will continue to quote, maintain the safety

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Speaker 1: and integrity of your embryos, eggs and sperm samples, and

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Speaker 1: that they will assist patients in getting medical records and

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Speaker 1: in transferring their embryos, eggs and sperm to another clinic.

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Speaker 1: But for some patients, this delayed statement brings little solace.

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Speaker 8: With IVF, you already struggle with not having controlled the situation,

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Speaker 8: but with this, I truly felt like I couldn't even

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Speaker 8: figure out what was going on.

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Speaker 3: I've been dealing with impertility for over five years. All

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Speaker 3: of the testing we had done, there's not a single

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Speaker 3: test to this day that they can show why I

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Speaker 3: have impertility. I'm just the couple that have unexplained impertility,

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Speaker 3: which is twenty five five percent of Apple with in pavilion.

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Speaker 1: This is Mary again, the veterinary technician who had an

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Speaker 1: appointment at the clinic on its very last day of operation.

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Speaker 1: Even though she didn't know it then. By the time

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Speaker 1: she arrived at the Center for Reproductive Health that morning,

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Speaker 1: her fertility journey had been long and exhausting. She and

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Speaker 1: her husband started trying for a baby when she was

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Speaker 1: just twenty six, early by most standards, but by her

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Speaker 1: late twenties it was clear she needed help. She had

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Speaker 1: started treatment elsewhere with a series of what's called intrauterine

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Speaker 1: insemination or iuis. This is a procedure where sperm is

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Speaker 1: placed directly into the uterus to increase the chances of fertilization.

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Speaker 1: It's less invasive and less expensive than IVF and often

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Speaker 1: the first step in fertility care. Mary tried one, then another,

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Speaker 1: and another five In total. She got pregnate twice, but

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Speaker 1: both ended in miscarriage. None of them led to a baby. Eventually,

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Speaker 1: she and her husband decided to move on to IVF,

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Speaker 1: but there was a problem. The veterinary hospital where Mary

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Speaker 1: worked didn't offer insurance coverage for it, and paying out

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Speaker 1: of pocket for IVF can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

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Speaker 1: Many people pursuing IVF in the US are in the

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Speaker 1: same position, shouldering the cost on their own.

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Speaker 3: We, of course, were just running out of money. I'm

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Speaker 3: pretty sure our credit cards had plenty on them, and

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Speaker 3: so we had to kind of walk away for a

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Speaker 3: little while. And then my hospital got new benefits kind Body,

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Speaker 3: meaning I thought I finally won the jackpot.

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Speaker 1: Kind Body is a fertility service that some employers offer

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Speaker 1: as part of their health care benefits, allowing access to

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Speaker 1: a variety of fertility care providers. Full disclosure. I also

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Speaker 1: use kind Body for fertility treatments. In Mary's case, only

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Speaker 1: one clinic in Nashville accepted kind Body, the Center for

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Speaker 1: Reproductive Health, As.

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Speaker 3: Soon as the benefits hit of January twenty twenty three,

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Speaker 3: I was in their office.

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Speaker 1: Mary's first IVF cycle and egg retrieval resulted in ten eggs.

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Speaker 3: But only four for life that turned into embryos. And

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Speaker 3: then after we sent those four off to testing, we

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Speaker 3: only got one viable embryo that really sucked.

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Speaker 1: The results were disappointing, but also fairly typical. There's this

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Speaker 1: stereotype that fertility doctors or mad scientists trying to get

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Speaker 1: a monstrous number of eggs just because when in fact,

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Speaker 1: in most cases, you need to start with a large

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Speaker 1: number of eggs in order to end up with enough

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Speaker 1: embryos for one or two live births. When I started IVF,

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Speaker 1: I was told to expect that about half of the

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Speaker 1: eggs retrieved could be lost at each step of the process,

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Speaker 1: during fertilization, during the weight to see if they grew

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00:16:13,680 --> 00:16:18,960
Speaker 1: into embryos, and after genetic testing. So if you start

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Speaker 1: with twenty mature eggs, you might end up with four

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Speaker 1: or five viable embryos, and that might only end in one,

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Speaker 1: maybe two pregnancies, and that's if you're really lucky. Still,

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Speaker 1: no matter how much Mary might have prepared for this reality,

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Speaker 1: seeing her numbers diminish from ten to one felt like

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Speaker 1: a gut punch.

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Speaker 3: I was super devastated, but.

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Speaker 1: She still had one healthy embryo, and in June twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty three, doctor Hime Vasquez performed the transfer.

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Speaker 3: I remember crying really hard after they said they were

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Speaker 3: all done, because I think the moment of leading up

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Speaker 3: had finally hit me that like, Okay, this is you

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Speaker 3: or die, Like this this is it. Your one embryo

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Speaker 3: is in and in ten days, you're going to find

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Speaker 3: out if you're going to be a mom or not.

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Speaker 1: Eager to see if it worked. Mary took a home

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Speaker 1: pregnancy test and it was positive.

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Speaker 3: And I was seen the line get darker, so I

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Speaker 3: was like, oh my gosh, this is it. And then

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Speaker 3: the day before I was supposed to go in to

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Speaker 3: do blood work, the line was lighter and I dark

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Speaker 3: to panic. And then the next morning it was even

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Speaker 3: lighter again. Like I just remember, I couldn't.

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Speaker 6: Even hardly work. I was so distracted.

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Speaker 3: And then I went in for my blood work and

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00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:54,680
Speaker 3: it showed HPV of like twenty, which is not good.

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Speaker 1: Mary was having a chemical pregnancy, which is a very

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Speaker 1: miscarriage that occurs shortly after the embryo implants. Chemical pregnancies

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Speaker 1: may account for fifty to seventy five percent of all miscarriages,

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Speaker 1: though many people don't even know they're pregnant, as it

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Speaker 1: happens so early on in the process.

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Speaker 10: You just not okay.

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Speaker 3: Act that for a while. I went to counseling. I

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00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:22,760
Speaker 3: joined the support group that I found for women that

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Speaker 3: had been the IDF. I mean, I just had to

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Speaker 3: build up my hope again because we would have to

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Speaker 3: go through another round of IVF to try and have

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Speaker 3: a baby, and so we were back at square one.

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Speaker 1: Mary went through another egg retrieval, but it was even

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Speaker 1: less successful than her first. This time she only got

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Speaker 1: a single egg and it didn't fertilize. That's when doctor

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Speaker 1: Vaskez suggested she consider a new path using donor eggs,

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Speaker 1: and he had a way to make that happen. Outside

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Speaker 1: of his medical practice, Vazquez ran a separate business called

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00:19:00,359 --> 00:19:06,880
Speaker 1: the American Embryo Adoption Agency or AEAA. Through AEAA, patients

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00:19:06,880 --> 00:19:10,000
Speaker 1: who are struggling to conceive with their own eggs could

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00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:14,720
Speaker 1: purchase donated eggs or embryos, often the leftovers from other

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Speaker 1: couples IVF cycles.

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Speaker 3: I had to finally give up on that they would

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00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:22,840
Speaker 3: be a fifty percent me running around in this world,

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Speaker 3: and that I wanted I wanted to be a mom

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Speaker 3: more than I wanted to just have a genetically binded child.

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Speaker 1: Using a Christmas bonus, Mary and her husband purchased ten

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Speaker 1: donor eggs for ten thousand dollars. They were fertilized with

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Speaker 1: her husband's sperm at the Center for Reproductive Health. Of

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Speaker 1: the ten, two developed into genetically normal embryos. Mary is

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Speaker 1: about to transfer one of these embryos when the clinic

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Speaker 1: shuts down. Now her embryos are locked inside. On Friday,

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Speaker 1: April twelfth, exactly one week from her last appointment, Mary

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00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:10,240
Speaker 1: sees a Facebook post from another patient with an urgent

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Speaker 1: announcement Doctor Vaskaz is in the office right now for

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Speaker 1: patients who are desperately trying to get a hold of

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Speaker 1: someone at the clinic. This feels at least promising. Maybe

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Speaker 1: doctor Vaskeez can help. Mary jumps into action.

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Speaker 6: At that point, everyone is just like, oh my god,

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Speaker 6: we have to get down there. Like people started showing

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Speaker 6: up at this point because we want answers, we want

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Speaker 6: to know what's going on, pretty much anyone that didn't

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Speaker 6: have to be like at a cropt in jodge of

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Speaker 6: down there. We were thinking he would recognize as and

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Speaker 6: he would want to as a decent physician, Like he

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00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:46,680
Speaker 6: would be like, hey, this is just like a misunderstanding,

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Speaker 6: or like he would talk to you, you would think.

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Speaker 1: As Mary steps off the elevator onto the fourth floor,

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Speaker 1: her heart is pounding. She sees seven other women and

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00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:04,119
Speaker 1: already gathered in the hallway outside the clinic through the

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00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:08,440
Speaker 1: glass doors. The waiting room looks the same, just empty,

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00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:13,600
Speaker 1: and today the doors are locked. They don't see doctor Vaskez,

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00:21:13,960 --> 00:21:17,399
Speaker 1: so it's unclear if he's even still there, But on

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00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:21,399
Speaker 1: the off chance that he is, they wait. The patients

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00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:25,040
Speaker 1: want to talk to him if he won't answer their questions.

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Speaker 1: At the very least, they're hoping they can get copies

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00:21:27,960 --> 00:21:33,000
Speaker 1: of their medical records. Documentation that shows their fertility history,

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00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:38,000
Speaker 1: improves their legal claim to what remains inside their embryos,

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00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:42,520
Speaker 1: eggs and sperm, what the industry refers to more vaguely

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00:21:42,800 --> 00:21:47,840
Speaker 1: as genetic material. Without these records, they can't just move

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00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:51,959
Speaker 1: to another clinic for care. They can't transport their embryos,

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Speaker 1: they can't even begin to try to get pregnant.

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Speaker 6: We're just all trying to figure out, like how do

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00:21:58,200 --> 00:21:59,480
Speaker 6: we get him to come out, Like how do we

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Speaker 6: get him to know so that we don't mean any harm.

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Speaker 6: We just want our medical records.

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Speaker 1: As they're waiting, the elevator doors open and another woman emerges,

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Speaker 1: heading towards the clinic. She walks up to the glass door,

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00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:17,080
Speaker 1: shakes the handle, and the pier is confused that the

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00:22:17,119 --> 00:22:18,080
Speaker 1: door won't open.

358
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Speaker 6: She thinks she's coming by just to pick up a script.

359
00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:25,040
Speaker 6: She has no idea that the clinic clothes. I'm like, hey,

360
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Speaker 6: you know what's going on, and she's like, no, i

361
00:22:27,400 --> 00:22:29,880
Speaker 6: just got back into town from vacation. I'm just to

362
00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:33,720
Speaker 6: start my IVS this week. And I was like, I

363
00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:35,760
Speaker 6: think you should watch this news report that came out.

364
00:22:37,280 --> 00:22:39,400
Speaker 6: It's going to be a lot of information, and we're

365
00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:41,040
Speaker 6: all kind of in limbo, like we all don't know

366
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Speaker 6: what's really going on. And she starts crying and she's like,

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Speaker 6: I just gave this man thirty thousand dollars in cash

368
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Speaker 6: two weeks ago to start this IBS. It shouldn't have

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00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:55,800
Speaker 6: been left on the patients to tell other patients about

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Speaker 6: the horrific event. Yeah, I felt like I had just

371
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Speaker 6: like crushed a woman's soul.

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Speaker 1: An hour or two goes by, no one comes to

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Speaker 1: the door, and then a couple of nurses get off

374
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Speaker 1: the elevator. They're not employees of the Center for Reproductive Health. Instead,

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00:23:15,119 --> 00:23:18,640
Speaker 1: judging by their lab coats, they work for Ovation, an

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00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:23,280
Speaker 1: independent embryology lab that partners with another nearby fertility clinic.

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00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:26,320
Speaker 1: It seems that they came to CRH just.

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Speaker 6: To help out, and we're like, what are you guys

379
00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:31,240
Speaker 6: doing here, Like are you checking on the embryos, And

380
00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:33,480
Speaker 6: they're like, yeah, we are just here to check on

381
00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:35,840
Speaker 6: the embryos to make sure the tanks have nitrogen.

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Speaker 1: The women start begging the nurses to help, to check

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Speaker 1: if doctor Vazquez is inside and if so, tell him

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Speaker 1: to please come out.

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Speaker 6: It was such a horrific thing to see. Women were

386
00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:53,240
Speaker 6: all crying because if this is closing, nobody doctors were

387
00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:55,680
Speaker 6: gonna they're gonna repeat yests. They're gonna not know what's

388
00:23:55,720 --> 00:23:58,520
Speaker 6: gone on, Like we need our medical records. They felt

389
00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:01,800
Speaker 6: so bad for us, they were fugging us. They apologize.

390
00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:05,000
Speaker 1: The Ovation nurses tell the women to write down their

391
00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:08,120
Speaker 1: names and they will search for their medical records while

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00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:11,440
Speaker 1: they're inside. They make their way through the clinic doors

393
00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:13,000
Speaker 1: and disappear into the back.

394
00:24:13,400 --> 00:24:17,000
Speaker 6: An hour goes by and the women come out and

395
00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:21,440
Speaker 6: they're like, you guys were trying, but everything is so unorganized.

396
00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:24,680
Speaker 6: We can't find a lot of your guys' stuff. Half

397
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:28,119
Speaker 6: of it's in a paper form, half of it's on digital,

398
00:24:28,359 --> 00:24:31,119
Speaker 6: half of it's not uploaded. I just remember all this

399
00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:33,320
Speaker 6: shaking and scared.

400
00:24:34,080 --> 00:24:38,040
Speaker 1: The Ovation nurses are able to pass along some medical records,

401
00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:39,680
Speaker 1: but not Mary's.

402
00:24:40,200 --> 00:24:42,439
Speaker 6: She just kept saying, I just can't find the proof

403
00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:46,280
Speaker 6: of the embryos information for you. Like I was terrified.

404
00:24:46,520 --> 00:24:48,520
Speaker 1: I was, Oh my god, it.

405
00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:51,840
Speaker 6: Was the out of all of our journey. That was

406
00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:54,600
Speaker 6: the worst moment ever. I was scared there was a

407
00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:57,160
Speaker 6: proof that I owned my embryos, that they were mine.

408
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:02,760
Speaker 1: Salvation nurses can't stay for long. They have to get

409
00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:06,040
Speaker 1: back to work. But on their way out, they mentioned

410
00:25:06,040 --> 00:25:10,240
Speaker 1: that doctor Vasquez is actually there in the office. He

411
00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:13,520
Speaker 1: doesn't emerge from the back, but Mary isn't ready to

412
00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:14,720
Speaker 1: give up, not.

413
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Speaker 6: Yet, and I was like, I'm not leaving. Then all

414
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:20,440
Speaker 6: of a sudden, we hear the elevator open up again

415
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:24,080
Speaker 6: and we hear this woman in Highfields and she walks

416
00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:26,760
Speaker 6: right into the clinic like she owns the place, like

417
00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:28,719
Speaker 6: a woman in a suit. One of the girls I

418
00:25:28,760 --> 00:25:32,159
Speaker 6: was there with, Megan, literally yells across the lobby and

419
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:34,880
Speaker 6: she goes, hey, who are you, And she goes, I'm

420
00:25:34,920 --> 00:25:38,320
Speaker 6: his attorney. Her name was Dixie, and she looks like it,

421
00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:42,520
Speaker 6: let me tell you. And that's when Megan's like, please,

422
00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:45,959
Speaker 6: you have to help us, Like Mary needs her medical records,

423
00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:48,040
Speaker 6: she needs proof of that she has embryos in there.

424
00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:52,680
Speaker 1: Dixie is empathetic to her plight. She lets Mary inside

425
00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:54,800
Speaker 1: the clinic and tells her to take a seat in

426
00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:59,520
Speaker 1: the lobby. Dixie heads off to search for Mary's records, warning,

427
00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:01,360
Speaker 1: take a while, she.

428
00:26:01,359 --> 00:26:02,320
Speaker 6: Would be nice.

429
00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:02,600
Speaker 7: She was.

430
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:05,439
Speaker 6: Actually, she was trying to defend him to me. She

431
00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:08,960
Speaker 6: was like, you know, his staff walcked out. We want

432
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:11,679
Speaker 6: to help the patients, and like at that point I

433
00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:15,320
Speaker 6: was like, I don't care. I was like, to please

434
00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:16,679
Speaker 6: find my medical record.

435
00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:21,640
Speaker 1: Mary sits alone in the empty waiting room. It's strange.

436
00:26:22,119 --> 00:26:26,280
Speaker 1: There's no receptionist tapping on her keyboard, no other patients

437
00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:31,080
Speaker 1: chatting in hushed tones, no movement at all. The normal

438
00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:33,960
Speaker 1: rhythm of the clinic, which is so familiar to her,

439
00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:42,280
Speaker 1: is absent. The quiet makes her uncomfortable. More time passes,

440
00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:46,919
Speaker 1: Dixie finds some paperwork, but it's not what Mary needs.

441
00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:50,720
Speaker 1: Then Dixie calls an it person on the phone to help,

442
00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:55,080
Speaker 1: and finally Mary gets an email with a thousand pages

443
00:26:55,119 --> 00:26:58,760
Speaker 1: of documents attached. She quickly forwards it to her husband.

444
00:26:59,280 --> 00:27:00,720
Speaker 6: Then I'm like, I need I start looking to this

445
00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:02,919
Speaker 6: email right now before I leave. I need you to

446
00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:07,320
Speaker 6: find in a thousand pages proof that the embryos are

447
00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:12,159
Speaker 6: genetically like half you, we own them, and that they

448
00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:15,000
Speaker 6: are store here at this lab. I just needed that

449
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:17,840
Speaker 6: proof before I walked up, because I know, thank God,

450
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:19,280
Speaker 6: I knew that would be the last time I would

451
00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:20,199
Speaker 6: ever be in that lobby.

452
00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:25,280
Speaker 1: Soon, Mary's husband texts her that he's found the needed documents.

453
00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:27,840
Speaker 1: Just as a couple of new women show up at

454
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:29,840
Speaker 1: the glass door and rattle the handle.

455
00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:32,359
Speaker 6: I'm thinking, oh my god, it's going to be more patient.

456
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:34,440
Speaker 6: They're going to see me in here. I'm going to

457
00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:37,200
Speaker 6: get their hopeful. They start pounding on the glass door

458
00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:39,119
Speaker 6: and they look at me and they point at the knob,

459
00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:41,760
Speaker 6: and that's when the attorney showed back up. So the

460
00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:44,960
Speaker 6: attorney Lesson opens the door and is like, we're not

461
00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:47,560
Speaker 6: open right now. We will contact. They're like, no, we

462
00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:51,080
Speaker 6: are here from the state of Tennessee. And then the

463
00:27:51,119 --> 00:27:53,720
Speaker 6: attorney literally she looked at me and she said, do

464
00:27:53,760 --> 00:27:55,840
Speaker 6: you have everything? And I said, yes, I do, and

465
00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:57,720
Speaker 6: that was it. I walked out of there.

466
00:28:03,600 --> 00:28:07,000
Speaker 1: As Mary leaves the Center for Reproductive Health, the new

467
00:28:07,080 --> 00:28:11,840
Speaker 1: women enter the clinic. They aren't patients though they're inspectors

468
00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:15,919
Speaker 1: from the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission. Their job is to

469
00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:21,560
Speaker 1: investigate complaints about healthcare providers. They received reports that patients

470
00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:24,520
Speaker 1: have been unable to contact anyone at the clinic, and

471
00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:30,200
Speaker 1: they're there for an unannounced inspection Dixie, Doctor Vasquez's lawyer

472
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:34,800
Speaker 1: brings them back into the office. An affidavit by one

473
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:38,800
Speaker 1: of the inspectors, Deborah Verna, lays out exactly what they saw.

474
00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:43,120
Speaker 1: The Tennessee Health Facilities Commission declined to make her available

475
00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:46,360
Speaker 1: for an interview, but here are parts of her affidavit

476
00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:49,040
Speaker 1: and the resulting report read by a voice actor.

477
00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:54,600
Speaker 11: I observed that there were no staff members present besides

478
00:28:54,640 --> 00:28:59,320
Speaker 11: doctor him Vaskez. Doctor Vasquez told us that the clinic

479
00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:02,920
Speaker 11: was not closed posed, it was just experiencing low volume.

480
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:07,400
Speaker 1: Doctor Vazquez gives the inspectors a tour of the facility.

481
00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:11,400
Speaker 1: They are very eager to check on the cryogenic tanks,

482
00:29:11,800 --> 00:29:14,720
Speaker 1: as a number of patients had expressed worry that their

483
00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:17,600
Speaker 1: embryos might not be receiving adequate care.

484
00:29:18,520 --> 00:29:22,920
Speaker 11: We asked doctor Vasquez how many embryos were currently being stored.

485
00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:26,960
Speaker 11: At first, he said he didn't know. He later stated

486
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:30,000
Speaker 11: there were between eight hundred to one thousand embryos.

487
00:29:30,840 --> 00:29:34,360
Speaker 1: Court documents later show there were one thousand, one hundred

488
00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:37,960
Speaker 1: and eighty eight frozen embryos at the clinic, several hundred

489
00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:41,760
Speaker 1: more than his estimate. Doctor Vazquez leads them to the

490
00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:45,880
Speaker 1: cryo tank storage room. Just outside the door, the inspectors

491
00:29:45,880 --> 00:29:49,920
Speaker 1: spot a tank without an alarm system. It's labeled both

492
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:54,680
Speaker 1: backup storage and mice embryos. As they prepare to enter

493
00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:57,560
Speaker 1: the room, the inspectors ask if they should put on

494
00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:03,760
Speaker 1: personal protective equipment. Doctor Vazquez tells them it's not necessary. Then,

495
00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:06,640
Speaker 1: in front of them, he begins opening the tanks.

496
00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:12,280
Speaker 11: I observed doctor Vasquez opening embryo and sperm cryogenic storage

497
00:30:12,320 --> 00:30:16,800
Speaker 11: tanks without using personal protective equipment, which is a violation

498
00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:20,840
Speaker 11: of infection control protocols. When I raised the issue with

499
00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:24,720
Speaker 11: doctor Vasquez, he stated he did not need to use PPE.

500
00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:29,120
Speaker 1: The inspectors watch as doctor Vasquez removes the plug from

501
00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:32,240
Speaker 1: a cryogenic tank and places it on a stainless steel

502
00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:36,680
Speaker 1: rolling cart. The cart is visibly soiled, covered in an

503
00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:42,239
Speaker 1: unknown sticky substance, use tweezers, broken class laboratory straws, and

504
00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:46,760
Speaker 1: a wadded up paper towel. The investigators also take a

505
00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:50,560
Speaker 1: closer look at the tanks themselves. They had been tipped

506
00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:53,880
Speaker 1: off by the clinic's former embryologist that one of the

507
00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:57,440
Speaker 1: tanks might be leaking, they wanted to see for themselves.

508
00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:03,080
Speaker 11: I did not observe a puncture, but I was unable

509
00:31:03,120 --> 00:31:06,280
Speaker 11: to fully determine if the tank had developed a leak

510
00:31:06,520 --> 00:31:10,440
Speaker 11: because there were no documented temperature readings of any of

511
00:31:10,480 --> 00:31:12,719
Speaker 11: the storage tanks since April fifth.

512
00:31:14,200 --> 00:31:18,040
Speaker 1: As the inspector wrote in her report, any facility with

513
00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:22,640
Speaker 1: cryogenic storage tanks is federally mandated to monitor and document

514
00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:28,400
Speaker 1: their temperatures regularly, but there was no temperature documentation since Friday,

515
00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:33,200
Speaker 1: April fifth, a full week before. When Verna asked doctor

516
00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:39,000
Speaker 1: Vasquez about the missing paperwork, he has no explanation. Inspectors

517
00:31:39,040 --> 00:31:43,000
Speaker 1: asked doctor Vasquez to demonstrate the procedures for servicing the tanks,

518
00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:46,719
Speaker 1: but when he goes to measure the liquid nitrogen, the

519
00:31:46,760 --> 00:31:52,040
Speaker 1: inspectors say he's off by seven centimeters. Verner questions Vasquez

520
00:31:52,040 --> 00:31:55,200
Speaker 1: about it, but he doubles down and insists he's right.

521
00:31:55,880 --> 00:32:00,200
Speaker 11: Doctor Vazkez appeared to be unable to accurately measure the

522
00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:02,840
Speaker 11: liquid nitrogen and record the measurements.

523
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:06,760
Speaker 1: They asked doctor Vazkez for a copy of the facility's

524
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:11,800
Speaker 1: written policies, but he can't find them. Verna finds something, though,

525
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:14,920
Speaker 1: when she checks out a binder laying on the countertop

526
00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:19,360
Speaker 1: in the lab. It's filled with old documents dated two

527
00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:23,120
Speaker 1: thousand and one. The Health Department later notes in its

528
00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:28,200
Speaker 1: report that crh's policies and procedures had not been updated

529
00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:32,880
Speaker 1: to reflect current professionally recognized standards of practice for over

530
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:38,440
Speaker 1: two decades. The inspectors conclude their visit and leave the

531
00:32:38,520 --> 00:32:42,440
Speaker 1: Center for Reproductive Health, but the investigation is not over.

532
00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:46,760
Speaker 1: They call an embryologist who had recently worked at the clinic,

533
00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:50,880
Speaker 1: now living in Florida. She tells them that she's owed

534
00:32:51,120 --> 00:32:54,920
Speaker 1: more than fifty thousand dollars for past services and shares

535
00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:59,760
Speaker 1: her concerns about the embryos. The embryologists declined to speak

536
00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:03,400
Speaker 1: on the record with me, so here's what she told investigators.

537
00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:07,680
Speaker 1: According to their report, again read by a voice actor.

538
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:11,520
Speaker 10: His behavior is like a caged animal and he's dissociated

539
00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:13,920
Speaker 10: from reality. He'll be talking with each hip or like

540
00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:15,440
Speaker 10: everything is great and it's not.

541
00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:21,040
Speaker 1: The clinic's former embryologist begs someone to intervene.

542
00:33:21,080 --> 00:33:24,160
Speaker 10: He's not set up for an emergency. Someone needs to

543
00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:26,400
Speaker 10: take care of it. If something goes wrong with one

544
00:33:26,440 --> 00:33:28,960
Speaker 10: of the tanks, he doesn't know what to do, and

545
00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:31,520
Speaker 10: he has no one now that can do this. All

546
00:33:31,640 --> 00:33:35,280
Speaker 10: of his staff is gone.

547
00:33:35,360 --> 00:33:39,600
Speaker 1: I asked doctor Vazquez's lawyer, Dixie Cooper, about the claims

548
00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:42,800
Speaker 1: that he was unable to tend to the cryogenic tanks properly.

549
00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:46,800
Speaker 1: She said the inspectors were incorrect and that he was

550
00:33:46,840 --> 00:33:51,640
Speaker 1: in the clinic every day checking them regardless. On April

551
00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:56,120
Speaker 1: twenty six, exactly three weeks after the clinic's final day

552
00:33:56,120 --> 00:33:59,560
Speaker 1: in operation, someone else does step in to take over,

553
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:01,120
Speaker 1: I said, breaking news to.

554
00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:01,480
Speaker 6: Tell you about.

555
00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:05,880
Speaker 1: Tennessee's attorney general is suing a Nashville doctor. Doctor Vazquez

556
00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:09,560
Speaker 1: and the businesses tied to his fertility clinic are sued

557
00:34:09,600 --> 00:34:13,360
Speaker 1: by the Tennessee Attorney General. It's not a criminal case

558
00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:18,600
Speaker 1: or even a medical malpractice suit. Instead, Vazqaz is accused

559
00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:23,319
Speaker 1: of violating the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits false

560
00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:28,440
Speaker 1: advertising and misrepresentation about goods and services. The gist of

561
00:34:28,440 --> 00:34:33,920
Speaker 1: the lawsuit is this, the patients considered consumers paid for

562
00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:37,399
Speaker 1: services and a certain level of care they didn't get.

563
00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:43,680
Speaker 1: The clinic's promotional material boasted that patients would receive consistent, personalized,

564
00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:47,600
Speaker 1: high quality care, and if they ultimately decided to switch

565
00:34:47,680 --> 00:34:51,480
Speaker 1: to another fertility clinic, the Center for Reproductive Health would

566
00:34:51,560 --> 00:34:55,319
Speaker 1: facilitate the transfer of care to ensure an easy and

567
00:34:55,400 --> 00:35:00,080
Speaker 1: seamless transition. Obviously, when the clinics shut down, that's not

568
00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:05,279
Speaker 1: what many patients experienced. The state estimated that doctor Vazquez's

569
00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:08,759
Speaker 1: patients had paid him tens of thousands of dollars for

570
00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:10,840
Speaker 1: services that they had not received.

571
00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:12,920
Speaker 8: The way that they do it is you pay for

572
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:16,800
Speaker 8: your transfer before the cycle, before they even start you

573
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:18,960
Speaker 8: on the medicine line. You have to pay for your transfer.

574
00:35:19,280 --> 00:35:21,879
Speaker 8: We had already paid for the transfer. We already pay

575
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:23,839
Speaker 8: for all of the stuff that goes with it.

576
00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:29,560
Speaker 1: The Attorney General's office also obtains a temporary restraining order,

577
00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:34,520
Speaker 1: freezing Vazquez's assets and effectively removing him from control. The

578
00:35:34,600 --> 00:35:38,759
Speaker 1: court quickly appoints a third party, called a receiver, to

579
00:35:38,920 --> 00:35:42,720
Speaker 1: manage the closure and oversee the clinic storage tanks until

580
00:35:42,719 --> 00:35:47,480
Speaker 1: they can be moved elsewhere. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Scrimmatti

581
00:35:47,680 --> 00:35:50,400
Speaker 1: gives an interview with news Channel five to address the

582
00:35:50,440 --> 00:35:55,120
Speaker 1: immediate concerns of the patients, namely if their genetic material

583
00:35:55,360 --> 00:35:57,200
Speaker 1: stored at the clinic is okay.

584
00:35:59,120 --> 00:36:03,000
Speaker 12: The tanks are top off to the best of my knowledge,

585
00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:06,400
Speaker 12: They've been kept to an adequate level throughout the transition,

586
00:36:06,960 --> 00:36:09,799
Speaker 12: but that's only because a lot of people worked very

587
00:36:09,840 --> 00:36:12,880
Speaker 12: hard to make sure that they were as this thing collapsed.

588
00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:15,920
Speaker 12: That was a priority for everybody. They wanted to be

589
00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:21,280
Speaker 12: sure that there was not some failure of the cooling system.

590
00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:26,200
Speaker 1: For patients, it feels like a turning point. With Vasquez

591
00:36:26,239 --> 00:36:30,200
Speaker 1: out and someone new in charge, surely things will start moving.

592
00:36:30,760 --> 00:36:33,759
Speaker 1: They just need their medical records. They just need to

593
00:36:33,760 --> 00:36:37,400
Speaker 1: get access to their embryos. It seems like it should

594
00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:41,280
Speaker 1: be straightforward, but anyone who's dealt with the government knows

595
00:36:41,719 --> 00:36:46,120
Speaker 1: everything moves at a sluggish pace. For these patients who

596
00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:49,959
Speaker 1: are raising the clock to get pregnant, any delay could

597
00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:53,799
Speaker 1: mean the difference between having a child or not.

598
00:36:54,640 --> 00:36:57,680
Speaker 2: For us, we just can't get started without our embryos,

599
00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:00,840
Speaker 2: so we're literally just stuck. It feels like I just

600
00:37:00,920 --> 00:37:03,399
Speaker 2: keep getting older and my embryos keep sitting at.

601
00:37:03,360 --> 00:37:20,200
Speaker 8: A tage.

602
00:37:13,440 --> 00:37:18,800
Speaker 1: Next time on what Happened in Nashville. On the Facebook group,

603
00:37:19,080 --> 00:37:22,640
Speaker 1: the women are talking to each other, sharing their experiences

604
00:37:22,680 --> 00:37:26,360
Speaker 1: at the clinic, and as they compare notes and research,

605
00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:31,480
Speaker 1: they discover what appears to be another bombshell about someone

606
00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:34,280
Speaker 1: else working at doctor Vasquez's clinic.

607
00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:38,239
Speaker 3: There's no mention of him with the board, there's no

608
00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:40,240
Speaker 3: mention of him with a license in the state of Tennessee.

609
00:37:40,600 --> 00:37:41,400
Speaker 8: There's nothing.

610
00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:45,560
Speaker 1: The Metro Nashville Police Department and the Department of Health

611
00:37:45,800 --> 00:37:47,160
Speaker 1: launch investigations.

612
00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:49,319
Speaker 7: I don't want anybody touching me. I don't want my

613
00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:52,480
Speaker 7: own husband touching me like. You just feel disgusting, you

614
00:37:52,520 --> 00:37:57,440
Speaker 7: feel violated, you feel manipulated, like all of the emotions.

615
00:37:57,520 --> 00:37:59,040
Speaker 7: You know at that point you're deceived.

616
00:38:02,640 --> 00:38:05,120
Speaker 1: What Happened in Nashville is a production of School of

617
00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:09,200
Speaker 1: Humans and iHeart Podcasts, written, reported, and hosted by me

618
00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:14,280
Speaker 1: Melissa Jelson. Our producer is Etily's Perez. Our senior producer

619
00:38:14,360 --> 00:38:18,200
Speaker 1: is Amelia Brock, with additional production by Emily Seiner and

620
00:38:18,280 --> 00:38:23,040
Speaker 1: Carl Catle. Theme song by Jesse Nice Swanger, Sound design,

621
00:38:23,160 --> 00:38:26,719
Speaker 1: scoring and mixing by Jeremy Thal and Jesse Nye Swanger.

622
00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:31,160
Speaker 1: Fact checking by Savannah hug Lee and Austin Thompson. Our

623
00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:36,080
Speaker 1: production manager is Daisy Church. Executive producers are Jason English,

624
00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:41,040
Speaker 1: Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and Elsie Crowley. If you're enjoying

625
00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:43,600
Speaker 1: the show, tell everyone you know and don't forget to

626
00:38:43,680 --> 00:38:46,759
Speaker 1: leave a rating in your favorite podcast app. Tune in

627
00:38:46,800 --> 00:38:53,160
Speaker 1: again next week for what happened in Nashville