I was looking through the archives at www.usatoday.com and found the following link.
The story is one that I never would have thought about unless I read this article. For some reason, I hadn’t thought about how frozen embryos would be handled in an emergency situation.
The couple in the article had used a fertility clinic to help create their embryos that they used for their first child. They then stored their remaining embryos in the hospitals nitrogen tanks to use for future use. When Katrina hit New Orleans, the hospital lost power and the embryos were in danger. The hospital had done preventative measures to keep the embryos safe by topping off the tanks and moving the tanks to another floor. But with the loss of electricity, the temperature climbed and the embryo were in danger.
A topped-off tank is safe for three to four weeks in an air-conditioned room, but “I’m sure the temperature was over 100 degrees in that hospital,” said Sissy Sartor, a fertility expert for the institute.
Fearing the embryos would be ruined, she contacted a state lawmaker, who called Gov. Kathleen Blanco. On Sept. 11, Illinois officers on loan to Louisiana set out in National Guard trucks towing flat-bottomed boats. A flat surface was essential: The nitrogen tanks, which weigh 75 to 90 pounds, had to stay upright. If they tipped over, the nitrogen would spill.
The boats were taken through the flooded halls of the hospital, and the embryos were floated out. They were taken across town to a hospital that had not flooded.
The couple in the article used one of their rescued embryos, one of the 1400 total that were resuced, and are now awaiting a planned c-section on January 16th. Although they do not know the sex of the baby, they said that the name Katrina is not in the running for a baby girl.
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