A Los Angeles couple filed a lawsuit on Thursday in Orange County Superior Court alleging that a Santa Ana-based company used toxic oil during in vitro fertilization, or IVF, treatments that destroyed their embryos.
The plaintiffs, who were not named in the lawsuit, sued Fujifilm Irvine Scientific Inc. alleging manufacturing defect, design defect, failing to warn, negligence and negligent failure to recall.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The oil developed by the company is used to protect fertilized eggs when they are stored.
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The company issued a recall in January when it received complaints of the deaths of human embryos when coming into contact with the substance, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that “after receiving these reports of defective oil” the company tested “the reported lots and found oil toxicity for many of its oil lots.”
The lawsuit adds that the plaintiffs “learned from their fertility clinic that their embryos were killed upon coming into contact with oil. Those embryos were viable prior to coming into contact with defendant's oil, and then were killed by defendant's oil ... (The plaintiffs) are devastated. They may no longer be able to have children with their genetic material as a result of defendant's conduct.”
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Attorney Adam Wolf, who represents the couple, said his firm represents “approximately a dozen people so far” affected by the recall.
“I'd say our outreach is not just national but international,” Wolf said in a news conference Thursday.
“There are affected clients in South America, the EU and in the United States. We have clients in California... and, really, around the world.”
Fujifilm is “one of the country's largest oil producers for IV clinics,” Wolf said.
But, “It's not the exclusive manufacturer of the oil.”
The oil protects the embryos against drying our or temperature before it is frozen, Wolf said.
Attorney Ashlie Sletvold, who also represents the couple, said the oil was found to be toxic “according to (Fujifilm's) own testing.”
She criticized the company for not publicly releasing information about the recall.
It's unclear how many people have been affected by the recall.
“We don't know if it's thousands or tens of thousands,” Sletvold said.
“We, unfortunately, expect the worst ... The company should have publicly posted this urgent recall notice to alert all affected patients.”
Wolf added, “It's outrageous that Fujifilm Irvine Scientific hasn't been more transparent about the scale of this disaster.”
The lawsuit faults the company for failing “to properly inspect and/or test its oil, including the recalled oil lots. Defendant knowingly put its oil into the market when it knew or should have known that the recalled oil lots posed a substantial and unacceptable risk to human embryos, including plaintiffs' embryos.”
The lawsuit called the company's conduct “despicable and was carried on by defendant with a willful and conscious disregard of the rights and/or safety of others. Defendant's conduct subjected plaintiffs to cruel and unjust hardship in conscious disregard of plaintiffs' rights.”
