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shawn_st - August 21st, 2006 8:08 PM

Dear Dr. Smith,

My wife and I are scheduled for an FET tomorrow morning. We have 5 frozen embryos and the plan was to thaw 3 for transfer tomorrow.
We received a call from the lab this afternoon to inform us there were "technical difficulties" during the thawing of our 3 embryos. The lab indicated that as they were thawing the embryos in the straw, the vial "exploded" (they used the word "exploded") and all three embryos were lost. He said it happened while they were adding nitrogen or the solution. They were calling for permission to thaw the remaining 2 embryos for tomorrow's procedure.

Obviously we are devastated, but I am trying to determine if this is normal. I called our doctor and he said these things sometimes happen. It is no one's fault and it isn't the fault of the lab. As you can guess, we are having a rather difficult time understanding what actually happened and how it could spontaneously "explode".

Are we simply extremely unlucky or does it sound as if the lab made a mistake?

Thanks,
Shawn

Dr Smith - August 22nd, 2006 9:25 AM

The lab did NOT make a mistake. It really does happen sometimes and it unpredictable. The liquid nitrogen in the straw containing the embryos expands too rapidly and the straw literally pops (it explodes). It can actually injury lab personnel when it happens. It doesn't happen frequently, but it is one of the risks associated with freezing embryos. One of the ways I minimize the damage when this happens is to freeze each embryo in its own straw. Then, if one explodes, I only loose one embryo instead of 3-4. I must add that it is very common when freezing Day 3 embryos to freeze more than one in each straw. I'm just more obsessive-complusive than most.

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