Kolkata : The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission (WBCERC) has held Care IVF Clinic at Kolkata negligent for damaging two embryos of the complainant that were frozen at the facility. The WBERC directed the IVF Clinic to pay Rs.1 Lakh as compensation to the complainant Monalisa Das. These embryos, which had been frozen for nearly five years, were discovered to be damaged prior to a recent implant procedure.
The complainant and her couple had chosen Care IVF in Kolkata for their assisted reproductive technology treatment. The clinic has frozen four embryos of the couple in the clinic. The implantation of the embryos was delayed due to the Covid 19 pandemic.
The complainant, Monalisa Das, and her husband Four of Monalisa’s embryos were frozen at the clinic. Due to the uncertainties and low success rates associated with IVF, the implantation of the embryos had been delayed, partly due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Subsequently two of the four frozen embryos were implanted in the first cycle but the complainant did not achieve pregnancy. When planning for the second implantation it was discovered that the remaining two embryos of the couple had been damaged. The complainant questioned how the embryos could have been damaged considering she had been paying the monthly maintenance charges as required by the clinic.
The IVF clinic claimed that such incidents were rare but refused to take responsibility for the damage. The WBCERC did not accept the clinic’s defense and ordered compensation of Rs. 1 lakh to be paid to the complainant.