A popular IVF clinic frequented by people such as former patients including Kim Kardashian, Chrissy Teigen and Paris Hilton threw a couple’s precious embryos in the trash, and now they may not be able to have children… at least according to a new lawsuit.
Reproductive Partners Medical Group, a Los Angeles-based fertility clinic, is being sued by Marissa Calhoun and Stephen Castaneda …some ordinary people who say the clinic sabotaged their dream of having children.
In the documents, obtained by TMZ, the couple claims Marissa had her eggs retrieved, frozen and stored by RPMG in 2021 and 2022… but says tragedy struck in October 2023 when the IVF clinic made a major mistake.
The couple says that in October 2023 they decided to fertilize Marissa’s stored eggs with Stephen’s sperm, under the guidance of Dr. Andy Huang. They say that in late October 2023, RPMG reported that the eggs had been fertilized and would be placed in an incubator to develop into viable embryos.
Good news, or so they thought. Instead, the couple claims that just a few days later, Dr. Huang called them and told them that RPMG had discarded and therefore destroyed all of their embryos.
In the lawsuit, the couple says they had to pull teeth to get more information about what happened to their embryos … and they say RPMG eventually admitted that one of its employees had not labeled their embryos before placing them in the incubator … and then took the unlabeled embryos out of the incubator and “intentionally threw them away.”
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The couple say they asked RPMG for their records to help understand how this allegedly happened, but they say the clinic provided incomplete sets of records on three occasions, with the records stopping short of the point at which the embryos were discarded.
In the documents, the couple alleges that the clinic did not have policies, procedures and adequate training for its employees to ensure that all embryos placed in the incubators were labeled and that any unlabeled embryos were handled properly.
Dr. Huang has quite the reputation among Hollywood moms… making frequent appearances on “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” after helping Kim conceive her second child, Holy West.
The doctor also treated Kim’s younger sister, Khloe Kardashianwho welcomed her second child with Tristan Thompson — a son named Tatum — through surrogacy.
But this couple claims that Dr. Huang’s clinic dropped the ball on their case… and now they may not be able to become biological parents. They’re going after RMPG for damages.