Three Pittsburgh-area women are suing a fertility clinic in Cleveland that lost thousands of eggs stored by hundreds of women.
"I have lost my future, comprised of 29 precious eggs. I have lost everything," said Sarah Deer.
What makes the situation even sadder is all three women were diagnosed with cancer, underwent fertility treatments and delayed their own chemotherapy in hopes of having children.
“I have now lost all hopes of ever having biological children,” said Rachel Mehl.
But now, they say that hope is gone.
“My hopes and dreams have been shattered,” said Danielle Yerkey.
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The women shared their stories of grief and loss after finding out the eggs they were storing at Cleveland University Hospital were destroyed.
“I screamed and fell to my knees in the kitchen,” Yerkey said. “I felt as if I were dying and I wanted to die.”
Yerkey says she hasn't got over the pain of that early March phone call, when she learned the temperature suddenly rose inside the liquid nitrogen tank holding her eggs.
In all, around 4,000 eggs and embryos were compromised, and 1,000 patients affected.
"Making the choice to have my eggs frozen felt empowering," said Mehl, who was battling breast cancer. "Things may be terrible now, I thought, but at least one day I will be able to have the family I always dreamed of. But now that light is extinguished."
The women hired Gloria Allred to represent them and traveled to Cleveland on Monday to announce they're filing lawsuits against the hospital.
“Now, these women who are particularly vulnerable, have been victimized by the loss of their eggs due to no fault of their own,” Allred said.
"I'm a woman wounded ... robbed by cancer of my health and body that I once knew... and robbed by University Hospitals of my future,” Deer said.
The hospital is facing 18 similar lawsuits.
Officials blame “human error” for the failure, saying a remote alarm system on the tank was shut off, meaning clinic staff were not alerted to the thawing.