Gloria Allred Leads Pittsburgh Trio's Fertility Clinic Lawsuit

PITTSBURGH, PA - Three Pittsburgh women who lost eggs because of a fertility clinic error are suing University Hospitals health system of Cleveland.

Rachel Mehl, 40; Sarah Deer, 27; and Danielle Yerkey, 37, will be represented by noted celebrity attorney Gloria Allred. The women all delayed breast cancer treatments so their eggs could be harvested and frozen in hopes they could have biological children in the future.

"This is a very serious issue of reproductive rights," Allred said at a news conference announcing the litigation. "These are among the most vulnerable victims that I've ever met."

Temperature fluctuations at a University Hospitals fertility clinic compromised the eggs. University Hospitals has acknowledged that the alarm system supposed to alert employees to temperature swings in the clinic’s storage tanks had been turned off when the fluctuations began.

The hospital system also knew there was something wrong with its storage tanks — specifically its ability to automatically refill its needed liquid nitrogen — and was preparing to switch to a new tank.

Staff had to manually refill the tanks with liquid nitrogen during this time and it appears that the liquid nitrogen levels were below what was needed.

"These failures should not have happened, we take responsibility for them – and we are so sorry that our failures caused such a devastating loss for you," the hospital system said in a letter to the trio and others whose eggs were lost.

That the hospital takes responsibility for the mishap is of scant solace to the trio.

"The flagrant disregard for dreams and for our children has surfaced," Yerkey said. "You better believe that now I'm angry."

"I am a woman wounded - robbed by cancer of my health and the body I once knew and robbed by University Hospitals of my future," Deer said.

Allred said that her clients want to be "catalysts for change" so that "no other woman has to endure" what they did.

Reporting by Chris Mosby/Patch staff.

Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images.