Introducing: What Happened in Nashville

What Happened in Nashville is a deeply reported investigation into the sudden collapse of a Tennessee fertility clinic, and the patients caught in the fallout. When the Center for Reproductive Health shut down without warning, people lost access to their embryos, their treatments were abruptly cut off, and many were left scrambling to recover money, medical records, and time they couldn’t afford to lose. Through intimate conversations with the patients who lived through it, host Melissa Jeltsen reveals the emotional and physical toll of the clinic’s abrupt closure. But the story reaches far beyond a single clinic. The series exposes the cracks in a fertility industry built on hope, high price tags and minimal oversight. What Happened in Nashville isn’t just the story of one tragedy — it’s a warning about a system where families have everything at stake and far too little protection.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
It doesn't matter how much I fight, doesn't matter how
much I cry over all of this, It doesn't matter
how much justice we get. None of it's going to
get me pregnant.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Imagine pouring years of hope, trust, and your last dollar
into a fertility clinic just to have your dream of
a child halted in the middle of treatment, no warning,
no explanation, no Refundseha.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
So breaking news to tell you about Tennessee's Attorney general
is suing a Nashville doctor.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
In April twenty twenty four, women arrived at the Center
for Reproductive Health for scheduled IVF appointments. Instead, the clinic
was gone shut down overnight and trapped behind locked doors
were more than a thousand frozen embryos. For many patients,
their only chance at a family. They were just going

(00:55):
to ignore us.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
They weren't going to answer us. They had truly closed
their clinic.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
I was terrified. Out of all of our journey, that
was the worst moment ever. This is the story of
an IVF clinic's catastrophic collapse and the patients left behind,
But it's also about an industry where profit often trump's
protection and vulnerable families carry all.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
The risk IVF today is far less regulated than virtually
an incomparable part of medical practice in the United States.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
I'm Melissa Jelson and This is What Happened in Nashville,
an investigative podcast from iHeart Podcasts and School of Humans.
Like my earlier true crime podcasts, What Happened to Sandy Beal,
What Happened to Libby Caswell, and What happened to Telema Czar.
It's about women failed by the people and systems meant
to protect them. But this season, those failures go beyond

(01:58):
the legal system to the medical field and the very
business of fertility. Unfortunately, a lot of people are getting
taken advantage of because we're desperate, and when no one
else would step in, they banded together, strangers, challenging an
industry that's surprisingly underregulated and expanding rapidly. At that point,

(02:19):
it didn't occur to me what fight was going to
come to follow.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
It feels like I just keep getting older and my
embryos keep sitting in a take.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
This story touches anyone who's ever dreamed of having a child,
and what's at stake isn't just a few family's futures.
It's whether the promise of modern fertility care can be
trusted at all.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
This was our last chance. Like the last of everything,
the dream was over.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Listen to what happened in Nashville beginning December third on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.