December 3, 2025 • 39 mins
Sydney McDowell walks into her Nashville fertility clinic expecting a routine appointment. Instead, devastating news sends her scrambling to get her embryos out before they’re trapped inside.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
There's a kind of fairy tale that I remember from
growing up. You've probably heard a version of it. In
the story, a woman longs for a child. She's a
woodsman's wife or a queen desperate for an air. No
matter what she does, she can't conceive, and so she
turns to the witch next door, the toad in the pond,
(00:23):
the nymph with the silver tongue, any mystical figure willing
to make a deal the woman's sacrifice in return for
a child. The bargain is made. The woman follows their orders,
eats herbs from a secret garden, plants magic seeds deep
in the earth. She offers pieces of her life, her soul,
(00:47):
in exchange for a dream. The thing is for anyone
who's ever struggled with fertility, These ancient tales might sound
eerily familiar. I have been this woman. Maybe you have too.
The difference is today the bargain isn't made with a
witch or a toad. It's with a doctor at a
(01:08):
fertility clinic, one that you've chosen to trust with your future.
IVF In vitro fertilization is a deal made out of necessity,
and the price is steep. You swallow pills and inject
drugs that change your body and your mind in unpredictable ways.
(01:30):
You spend your life savings on tests and procedures and appointments.
You embark on long, repetitive voyages back and forth to
the clinic without knowing how long the journey will ultimately
take or where you'll end up. All for the chance
to hold a child in your arms. Which is why
(01:52):
when I heard about this story about what happened in Nashville,
I couldn't look away. The National Fertility Clinic abruptly shut down,
putting patients and their embryos in limbo.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Have some breaking news to tell you about Tennessee's Attorney
General is suing a Nashville doctor. Just shock and disbelieve
from former patients at the Center for Reproductive Health.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
A fertility clinic closed overnight without warning or explanation, leaving
patients stranded and their embryos locked inside.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
This was our last chance, Like the last of everything,
the dream was over.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
As a reporter, I've spent much of my career documenting
women's experiences with violence. You may have heard my earlier
true crime podcasts, What Happened to Sandy Beal what happened
to Libby Caswell, what happened to Teleinazar. Investigations into women
failed by the people and systems meant to protect them.
(02:52):
Those failures cost women their lives. This story is different. Here,
these women are fire for their futures, for the chance
to become parents, and yet they still find themselves left behind,
abandoned and vulnerable, not just by police and prosecutors, but
(03:13):
by doctors, legislators, and the very business of fertility. The
cost is different, but the betrayal cuts just as deep.
It doesn't matter how much I fight.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
It doesn't matter how sad I get.
Speaker 5 (03:28):
It doesn't matter how much I cry over all of this.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
It doesn't matter.
Speaker 6 (03:31):
How much justice we get.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
None of it's going to get me pregnant.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
This is a story about what happens when a clinic
entrusted with people's most fragile hopes simply collapses, leaving them
with questions, debt, and heartbreak.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
This is the case of cases, and they haven't even
cracked the lid yet.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
It's also about what happens when an industry operates without
real oversight.
Speaker 6 (03:58):
IVF today is far less regulated than virtually any comparable
part of medical practice.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
In the United States and the secrets and scandals discovered
behind the clinic walls.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
I with Garrett, there was a proof that I owned
my embryos, that they were mine.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
At its core, this story is about what it means
to create a family in a precarious system that can
take that chance away in an instant.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
You're not going into fertility treatment from any position of strength.
It's a uniquely vulnerable kind of healthcare creating new life.
We're still not parents, by the.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Way, and the hope that still prevails despite the overwhelming setbacks.
We're going to be moms one day. I'm Melissa Jelson
from School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. This is what
(05:00):
happened in Nashville, Episode one collapse. The part that these
fairy tales about fertility always skip through is what comes
before the desperate visit to the witch or the fairy
begging for a miracle. It can take months, years of
(05:24):
dashed hopes and inexplicable losses to even realize you need
help getting pregnant before your IVF story even begins, and
for many people, it's not a path they imagined that
ever need to take.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
I truly did not know what to expect walking into
a fertility clinic. Anybody that's been there knows that it's scary.
Just walking in there. You kind of feel helpless, you know,
like my body's not doing what it needs to. So
here I am.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
This is Sydney McDowell. She's in her late twenties with
honey blonde hair and a naturally sunny disposition. She lives
just outside Nashville, where she runs a small embroidery business
from home, stitching custom designs for strangers on Etsy.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
I have two daughters. I had one when I was
nineteen and the other when I was twenty two, So
I was really young, young and dumb, as i'd say,
but they saved my life and I raised them as
a single mom until my oldest was six and my
youngest was three, and then I got married to my
(06:27):
high school best friend and they love him so much.
We have the sweetest, splendid family. But we went so
badly to just have a baby to kind of bring
us all together.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Sydney and her husband, Austin, got married in twenty twenty
three and started trying for a baby. Soon after a
few months in it happened. Sydney saw a faint positive
line on a pregnancy test, but at just seven weeks,
she began having intense, painful cramps. At the time, Sydney
(07:01):
was working at a local hospital as an ultrasound tech.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
It felt like I was giving birth and in the
middle mus shift collapsed because I couldn't stand up anymore.
And that's when my e topic just completely ruptured.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And ectopic pregnancy a nightmare most women don't think about
until it happens to them. Sydney's embryo had implanted in
her Phillippian tube instead of her uterus, which meant she
needed emergency surgery at the very hospital where she worked.
The operation saved her life, but the damage to her
(07:36):
Philippian tube was irreversible.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
My life changed that day pretty much.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
At her follow up appointment, her surgeon gently delivered more
difficult news. Looking in her remaining Filippian tube, she had
found signs of endometriosis, a chronic condition where tissue similar
to the lining of the uterus grows outside it, often
pain and fertility issues.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
I remember walking out of that appointment and I sat
in my car and I just bawled. I was only
twenty bob at the time. I didn't expect anything like
this to happen.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Sydney's doctor suggested she speak with a reproductive endocrinologist, a
dedicated fertility doctor who could give her a clearer picture
of what her future might look like.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
She wanted me to receive the best care that I
could get, so she sent me a referral to the
Center for Reproductive Health.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Welcome, Welcome to the Center for Reproductive Health. You may
be wondering what will your first visit be like. You'll
find our staff to be highly personable and eager to
assist you for.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
The Center for Reproductive Health is a small, family run
fertility clinic in Nashville, Tennessee, tucked away on the fourth
floor of a medical building, easy to miss if you
aren't looking for it. Inside, the waiting room is simply
decorated with floral upholstered chairs circling a wooden coffee table.
The space feels slightly dated, but clean and warm. When
(09:08):
Sydney and her husband walk in for their first appointment
in early twenty twenty three, they don't know yet how
much they'll come to associate that room with hope, anxiety,
and everything in between.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Your nurse will obtain a complete medical history as well
as check your vital signs. Then it's the time you've
been looking forward to the most your time with doctor Vasquez.
He will perform a physical examination and then you'll sit
down with him to review your case and review recommendations
for next steps.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
The clinic is run by doctor him Vasquez, a licensed
Board certified OBGYN. He's originally from Chile, where he also
received his medical degree before completing his residency and fellowship
in the US. His resume looks impressive. He had published
peer reviewed research, authored medical textbook, and held faculty positions
(10:02):
at Vanderbilt Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and the University
of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison before eventually opening his own
fertility clinic in Nashville.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
When you look around, you see all the other couples,
and in that moment, I was just curious, like, what
point of their journey are they in.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
I wasn't in Sydney's waiting room at the Center for
Reproductive Health that day, but I have spent a lot
of time in similar waiting rooms at other IVF clinics,
and I can tell you that while none of our
stories are identical, the big emotions that arise inside these
rooms are pretty universal. It's a complicated mix of anxiety, fear,
(10:49):
and excitement.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
With fertility, you're told from the get go that like,
we really don't know a.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Lot about it.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
It's all just kind of a shot in the dark,
and you're like, all right, well, I get I'll pay
you to keep shooting.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
We were, of course, as I was approaching forty, started
to feel the pressure a little bit more and trying
to say, okay, what is.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
The fastest route to some create the cheapest route.
Speaker 6 (11:13):
First, we started off pretty excited. We were like, they're
going to offer more testing, They're going to research a
little bit more than what I already had, because right
now we don't have anything. You know, right now we're
considered unexplained to fertility. They don't know why you're not conceiving.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
I have been married to my wife for seven years now,
and we wanted to grow our family, and obviously we
required assistant reproductive technology. We were just so hopeful. We
looked into all the different fertility centers here in Nashville
and landed on Center for Reproductive Help.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Sydney doesn't know the other women, the other couples who
have passed through this waiting room before her, but she
feels a connection with them. While their fertility journeys are individual,
they're all entrusting the Center for Reproductive Health with their futures,
and for that reason, she feels a flicker of optimism,
(12:11):
like she's in the right place.
Speaker 5 (12:13):
I was also hopeful still that you know, it would
just be, oh, a quick, easy fax. You know, we'll
come here and do this and we'll have a baby.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
At Sydney's first appointment, doctor hime Vasquez explains that he'd
need to perform a laparoscopic surgery to examine her remaining
filopian tube, the one not damaged by her ectopic pregnancy.
The surgery confirms severe endometriosis throughout her reproductive organs. He'd
had to cauterize her remaining filopian tube. If Sidney wants
(12:47):
to get pregnant again, she will have to undergo in
vitro fertilization.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
It was extremely hard. It's okay. I feel like that
took me probably six months to wrap my head around
and be able to accept the reality of the situation.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
IVF is a foreign concept to Sydney. She'd heard of it,
of course, seen it dramatized on TV mentioned in Passing
by Acquaintances, but it had always belonged to someone else's story,
not hers. IVF, she soon learns, will not be an
easy or quick fix. Instead, it will require months of injections, tests, appointments,
(13:29):
and a mountain of hope. All of it is a gamble,
a deal with a doctor she barely knows.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
I was extremely naive. IVF is one of those things
that you don't truly understand the magnitude of it or
what goes into it unless it's your reality.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
A quick primer trying to conceive the old fashioned way
hinges on timing and luck. After sexual intercourse, spur must
find the egg at exactly the right moment, and everything
inside your body, from hormone levels to the condition of
your reproductive organs has to be just right for fertilization
to happen. If you've ever seen Look Who's Talking, the
(14:11):
nineteen eighty nine comedy starring John Travolta and Kirsty Alley,
that opening scene or sperm race to the Egg, as
the Beach Boys I Get Around plays. It's silly but
also pretty accurate. In IVF, there's no blind race, no
sperm frantically trying to find the egg like a shot
(14:32):
in the dark. Instead, patients take medication that stimulates the
ovaries to produce multiple eggs, which doctors then retrieve in
a procedure called an egg retrieval. Then the sperm is
combined with the eggs directly in the lab. That's the
in vitro part of IVF Latin for in glass. Because
(14:53):
eggs are fertilized and develop into embryos in a lab
dish instead of inside the body, from there can be
frozen for later or transferred into the uterus, offering a
more controlled approach. Sydney would soon find herself in a
cycle of daily pills and injections in preparation for an
egg retrieval.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
I remember just coming home with my large box of
medicine and sitting it down on my bathroom counter, and
you see all the sharp containers, you see all the needles,
you see all the medicine that you're gonna have to
draw up yourself and do it home. And it was
just the thought of, like, Okay, am I gonna be
(15:37):
able to do this?
Speaker 1 (15:39):
I had the same question Sydney had when I went
through fertility treatments. IVF is unusual in that, as expensive
complex medical treatments go, it's surprisingly diy to get ready
for an egg retrieval. You need to take injectable drugs
every day, sometimes twice a day, for about two weeks weeks.
(16:01):
Due to the frequency of the shots, it's two time
consuming to travel into a clinic to receive them, so instead,
patients are instructed to do their injections themselves at home.
There's no nurse guiding you through each step, just you
a pile of needles, a YouTube video and the hope
that you're doing it right. Beyond the pain of the shots,
(16:23):
the side effects are not fun. You spend two weeks
feeling swollen, bruised, and incredibly emotional.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
The medicine makes you want to lay in bed all day.
When people say that if takes over your life, it
does in a sense, because that's what I had to
do every single day, and I knew that if I
didn't do that, then that would change the outcome of
my future babies.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
In February twenty twenty four, a few weeks after Sydney
begins her daily injections, doctor Vazkez performs her egg retrieval,
He takes twenty five eggs from her ovaries in a
lab just down the hall. An embryologist, someone trained in
the science of reproduction, fertilizes the eggs with Sydney's husband sperm,
(17:09):
and then the couple waits for the next week. The
embryologist watches closely to see which of their embryos will
grow and which ones won't make it.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
So when they originally had told me that they harvested
twenty five eggs, like, I was like, oh wow, like
this is a great number, you know, I didn't realize
at the time, like how few make it past each stage.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
In the end, six embryos develop and are sent off
for genetic testing. The test called PGTA isn't required, but
it's commonly used. It screens for chromosomal abnormalities that could
lead to miscarriage or failed implantation, helping patients avoid the
heartbreak of transferring an embryo unlikely to thrive.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Later, they called us and told us that we had
three healthy embryos that had made it past the PGT testing,
and they were all girls.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
The next step is the embryo transfer, when doctor Vasquez
will place one of the embryos into Sydney's uterus. If
all goes well, the embryo will implant, begin to grow
and eventually become a healthy pregnancy, a baby.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
We had the date on our calendar, like this is
our transfer day. We were counting down the day. But
it's kind of the light at the end of the
tunnel because you know this is your chance, like this
is your chance that you can get pregnant.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Your baby sister is frozen.
Speaker 5 (18:45):
Well, I she's in a tube. What both colone pas?
She's like frozen in a tube and a big job refrigerator.
I'm so serious, ye you weirdy weirday.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
That's Sydney explaining IVF to her young daughter. She posts
the video of them talking to TikTok and.
Speaker 5 (19:11):
Then one day the doctor is going to get her
out of the tube and he's gonna put her in
my belly and he's going like the eyes though the doctor,
and you're going and hear the baby with him. He's
gonna keep her safe.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Sydney shared some of her IVF process online as a
way to feel less alone, and by March twenty twenty four,
it feels like the finish line is near her embryo
transfer is coming up.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
So when you're going through IVF, the transfer, that's the
big part. It's like we've worked this hard. Anybody in
their AVF journey, like the word transfer is just like
they know what that word stands for.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Just like the egg retrieval. Getting ready for the embryo
transfer involves taking specific drugs at specific times of the
day for a few weeks, and regular check ins at
the clinic.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
It's basically doing everything so that your body is just
one hundred percent ready to get pregnant keep a pregnancy.
I was taking shots and I was wearing three or
four patches a day on my stomach. Was so tired,
(20:25):
I didn't hardly get out of bed.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Embryo transfers aren't guaranteed. Success rates depend on the quality
of the embryo and a range of other factors, but
Sydney has a good shot and she's hopeful. On April fifth,
twenty twenty four, she goes to the Center for Reproductive
Health for a routine monitoring appointment. It's just two weeks
(20:48):
from her embryo transfer, and she arrives around nine thirty
am for her ultrasound and blood work. Today is a
little special though, because her mom's with her.
Speaker 5 (20:59):
I was actually so excited. My mom lives in Kentucky,
which is where Austin and I originally from, so she's
about a two and a half hour drive from me,
so I don't get to see her as much as
i'd love to. Since we were gonna be in Nashville,
we were just gonna make a day of it. We
were gonna go get my levels checked, and we plan
to get lunch. You go to the malls. Honestly, just
(21:19):
have a girl's day. I was really looking forward to
it because you just enjoyed that time with your mom.
We were just talking the whole way up to the office,
having a good time. Got on the elevator, hopeful. We
were talking about how close my transfer actually was, and
like she was just giving me reassurance, like you know,
you've came this far, it's gonna go great.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Based on previous visits, Sidney knows how it's supposed to go. First,
phlebottomus will take her blood. Then a tech will perform
a transvaginal ultrasound, looking inside her uterus to see if
it's an ideal environment for an embryo. At this point,
Sydney could go through the river mole in her sleep,
check in, pay the receptionist, sleeve up for lab work,
(22:06):
Undie's down for ultrasound, and done, see you again soon.
But when she walks into the clinic this time, the
typical routine is off kilter. To start, the receptionist doesn't
seem to want to charge her for the visit.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
I did pay out of pocket for all of my
fertility costs because our insurance doesn't cover any of it.
So I knew when I showed up that day that
I owed them two hundred and seventy five dollars that
would cover my lab work and my ultrasound for the day.
So when I walked in, I already had my debit
card out, and she looked at me and just kind
(22:45):
of looked back down and she's like, actually, just wait
a second, let me go see and i'll see if
you owe anything today, you know, just go have a
seat and they'll come get you in a minute. My
mom asked what just happened, and I said they didn't
want my money, but I don't really understand. She said,
they'll be out here. Maybe it's just a miscommunication. Sydney
(23:07):
and her mom, Wait, I was getting antsy because I
was hungry. I hadn't ate before I went, and I
was kind of just That's when it started feeling weird,
like why is it taking so long again? I just
kind of brushed it off to they're busy. I've worked
at a hospital before. I know how it's like to
(23:28):
get behind. You know, it's okay, they're my fertility clinic.
They're going to give me a baby. I'll be patient.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Something feels off, though, and it isn't just that day.
The clinic had started to feel different. In the last
few weeks. Sydney had started noticing small changes. The friendly
nurses and assistants should come to know had quietly disappeared.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
When you go to fertility clinic all the time, you
become life family to these people. So there were multiple
workers who had I had been at it on Facebook
because they were following me. I was following them well.
I started to realize that they weren't working there anymore.
Like the faces the medical assistants and nurses. They were different.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Sydney had told herself it was normal. Clinics get busy,
doctors retire, staff move on to new jobs. It didn't
mean anything.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
I worked at a small hospital, so I was wondering
if maybe he was getting bought out. I knew that
he was older, so in my head I was trying
to rationalize it that he might be selling his practice to,
you know, somebody else.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Still today is taking a long time. Finally, a woman
Sydney doesn't recognize comes out and calls her name Sydney.
Sydney and her mom both follow the woman down the hall.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
I thought it would be neat for my mom to
see kind of what we go through, because she's never
dealt with infertility or anything, so this is all new
to her too, and she kind of wants to be
able to understand it more to be there for me.
I'm literally just excited, so I'm almost skipping down the
hallway behind her. But then we don't even make it
(25:10):
three rooms down the hallway and she stops and she
opens this old door, and when she opens it, it's
like this dimlt office with a bunch of papers.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
The room that the woman ushers Sydney and her mom
into appears to be some sort of storage space with
a desk in it.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
And I like looked at her because at this point
I'm like, this is really weird. I've been going here
for two years. I've never been in this office. She
just tells me and my mom to sit down, and
she then proceeds to grab a chair and pull it
up in front of me and my mom and just
sits there for a second and like crosses her legs
with her hand on her lap, and like I could
(25:50):
tell at that point that she was anxious, that she
she was freaking out, And of course, in my mind,
I'm like, what in the world is I couldn't I
didn't grasp what the possibilities could be. She's like, I
don't know how to tell you this. Our clinic is closing.
We'll be closing. We won't be here after today. I
(26:12):
felt like I was unpunked for a second going to
lie I literally feel my heart just dropping and I'm
in tears at this point. You have to keep in
mind to I'm two weeks away from a transfer, so
my hormones were extremely high.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Sydney is spiraling, but she forces herself to concentrate on
what the employee is saying about doctor Vaskaz and the clinic.
The woman explains that the staff hasn't been paid and
the clinic is apparently trying to come up with the
money to keep operations going.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
She starts to go into detail that they had received
an email from Elena Vasquez that morning, which is his daughter,
stating that he did not have the funds to pay
them and that they would not receive a paycheck for
the previous two weeks that they had already worked, and
that he also not only owes his employees now, but
(27:06):
he owes the embryologist money he never paid her for
making our embryos. She had the worst look of fear
on her face.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Sydney tries to make sense of it all, but the
information is coming fast and it's overwhelming.
Speaker 5 (27:23):
I felt like at that momently everything in the past
two years that I had been working so hard for
and I was so excited, like I felt in that
moment that the carpet was just pulled completely out from
underneath me. My mom finally looked up at her and said, so, now,
what do we need to do? And so she said,
(27:43):
if I was you, I would get everything I could
out of this office today.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
The woman goes on to tell Sydney that if she
was in her shoes, her first priority would be to
get her medical records. Complete, accurate records would be essential
in transitioning to another fertility clinic. So Sydney rushes back
to the front desk and starts filling out the paperwork.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
The girl at the front desk released my medical records
right there.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
And then Sidney's mother asks the big question, the million
dollar question, the one that Sydney, in her state of shock,
never thought to ask.
Speaker 5 (28:24):
My Mom's like, well what about your embryos?
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Standing in the waiting room at the Center for Reproductive Health,
Sydney is struck by a new realization. She now has
her medical records, which she'll absolutely need to have any
chance of changing to a new clinic. But to perform
an embryo transfer, you need an embryo.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
In that moment, I was so worried about this cycle,
and I didn't think for a second that this clinic
is also the one that my embryos are being stored at.
This clinic doesn't have an off site storage. These embryos
are stored in their facility there.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Sydney's three embryos are inside a cryogenic tank at the
clinic right now. They're submerged in liquid nitrogen, stored it
negative three hundred and twenty one degrees fahrenheit. She can't
just walk out with them.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
One of the girls that had been upfront, she came
back with the post it note and it said Fertility
Couriers and it had a number on it. She said,
there's a guy named Ta. He is who reuse at
Center for Reproductive Health to move our embryos, so he's
familiar with us. You need to call him. And I'm like, okay,
(29:42):
and say, what what am I supposed to say?
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Sydney goes to her car and calls the courier ty,
explaining what she has just learned, that the Center for
Reproductive Health is collapsing and if she wants access to
her embryos, she needs to get them out asap.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
At first, I think he thought I was crazy. Honestly,
he probably thought I was insane because I was like,
please go get my embryos now they're closing. And then
he said his first answert was so, who's watching the tanks?
And that part hadn't even crossed my mind. And so
then that hits me that if it's all the staff
walks out, who is watching the tanks?
Speaker 1 (30:25):
The tanks that embryos are stored in don't run on autopilot.
They need to be monitored regularly by trained staff. Temperatures
must be checked and locked. Liquid nitrogen must be replenished.
If the tanks are neglected, the embryos can be lost
and all the possibility that they carried gone. Ty tell
(30:46):
Sydney he'll do whatever he can to get her embryos out.
Speaker 5 (30:49):
And then Tas says, so where we taking them to?
And I'm like, I don't know. I'm still in the
parking lot in my car, and I said, I don't
know where. And I'm like, well, where do you, like,
you know, do you have a suggestion? And he said, well,
I actually know that Nashville Fertility Clinic is right down
the road from where you're at right now. So I said, okay,
(31:13):
let me see what I can do. At this point,
my mom and I walk to Nashville Fertility Clinic from
the Center for Reabtective Health with my manical records, and
I'm bawling.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
With tears running down her face. Sydney explains her predicament
to the Nashville Fertility Clinic. The employees seem as shocked
as she is, but they quickly confirm they will store
her embryos as soon as tie the courier can physically
get them to the clinic. Still, the front desk person
needs her to understand Sydney won't be able to do
(31:48):
her embryo transfer in two weeks as planned. In fact,
it could take months before she can try again.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
And she said, now, let me tell you, we will
be more than happy to take you as a patient,
but we aren't going to just do your transfer. We
are going to have to assign you to a doctor
and you're gonna have to go from there with what
they want to do. So I kind of realized in
(32:15):
that second, like I'm starting over essentially. So then I
just started crying again because I was like, I felt
so close and then all of a sudden, I'm so
far away again. I have my daughters to explain this to.
I have my husband's family. Everybody's like ready for us
to have this transfer, and now I don't even have
a doctor.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Sydney and her mom go home and try to digest
the turn of events. There will be no embryo transfer
anytime soon. Sidney has to start again as a new
patient at a different clinic. A baby is now even
further out of reach. Over the weekend, Sydney keeps waiting
for some kind of acknowledgment from the clinic. Something is wrong,
(33:01):
that what the employee told her was true, that staff
hadn't been paid, that they were planning to stay home.
But online, the Center for Reproductive Health is presenting as
business as usual.
Speaker 5 (33:14):
And checking their website, you know, like did I miss something?
To look on their website and nothing's updated.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
In fact, around the same time as Sydney's appointment, they
post a cheerful message on Facebook congratulating an ultrasound tech
on her three year work anniversary.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
So then at that point I was like, Okay, maybe
it's maybe I'm blowing this out of proportion. This is
not actually happening, Like nobody's actually talked to doctor Vasquez.
We don't even know if this is really going on.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Sydney wants to be wrong, she really does, but things
aren't adding up, and so, unsure of what else to do,
she posts about it on TikTok, hoping someone somewhere might
know more.
Speaker 5 (33:58):
Okay, so normally don't get on here and talk or
anything because slightly awkward, and I have been sharing my
AVF journey this far. At this point, having a mental
breakdown because I am approximately two and a half weeks
from when I should be having a transfer. Just trying
to stay positive because what else is there to do
(34:19):
at this point. Hopefully my lottery reacts well to just
cutting off these fratility medicines. I know it's not really healthy.
That's kind of an update for now. No IBF right
now working on a new doctor.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Sydney doesn't have a big following on TikTok, but suddenly
her videos are getting attention. Other patients from the Center
for Reproductive Health start finding her, people who are just
as confused and just as in the dark.
Speaker 5 (34:49):
I've realized that people had appointments on Friday and they
weren't told they were seen, they were given bloodwork, they
had ultrasounds done, and they were sent home.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
And something ty the Courier said when she first called
him keeps running through her mind.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
He started, he said, well, this is a big deal. Like,
your embryos aren't the only ones there? What are they
doing with the rest of them?
Speaker 1 (35:15):
It is slowly dawning on Sydney that despite the terrible
situation she's in, she's actually really lucky. It seems she
may be the only patient who got this quiet tip
off and the only one who got a head start
at moving her embryos to a new clinic, But she
still has to get them out over the weekend. She
(35:37):
remains in constant contact with Tye to coordinate the move.
Speaker 5 (35:41):
So he taketed me that morning and said, you know,
today's the day. This is the time we plan to
pick them up. This is how long it takes to
get there. I sat and stared at my phone for
the entire two and a half hour window.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Tye arranges for an employee of the Center for Reproductive
Health to grant access to the closed clinic. The handoff
goes as planned, and Sydney's embryos are whisked away in
a mini freezer tank.
Speaker 5 (36:08):
And as soon as they were accepted to Nashville Fertility,
he did text me and let me know, like they've
made it safely. I've you know, they've arrived. Everything's good.
That was the biggest relief for me, was just knowing
that I got them out.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Despite wondering if her doubts and urgency were really necessary.
Sydney is ultimately right. The clinic never opens again. Sydney's
embryos are safe, but there are still roughly twelve hundred
others stored inside the now shuttered clinic. For the patients
(36:50):
who own them, they will determine how many kids they have,
if they have kids at all, their future families hinge
on those embryos. Else what's going to happen to them.
Speaker 5 (37:03):
At that point, it didn't occur to me what fight
was gonna come to follow.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
This season on what happened in Nashville.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
Everything in IVF is a gamble.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
We took this gamble.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Then, while the wind is inside of me, she goes,
I do you think that's your ovary?
Speaker 5 (37:32):
Me and a couple others realized this is bad. This
is not normal. It's like okay, like there's no not
going to be anybody left. Heard this clinic up like.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
It's going to fall, and I immediately was like, holy shit,
Like that is my biggest fear confirmed now. So I
just had zero trust that this was right.
Speaker 6 (37:56):
Like, you just feel disgusting, you feel violated, we feel manipulated,
like all of the emotions. You know at that point
you're deceived.
Speaker 5 (38:05):
We would just never accept this in other areas of medicine.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
Unfortunately, people have figured out that this group of people
are easy to take advantage of because we're desperate. What
Happened in Nashville is a production of School of Humans
and iHeart Podcasts, written, reported, and hosted by me Melissa Jelson.
Our producer is Etaly's Perez. Our senior producer is Amelia Brock,
(38:30):
with additional production by Emily Seiner and Carl Catele. Theme
song by Jesse Nice Swanger, Sound design, scoring and mixing
by Jeremy Thal and Jesse Nye Swanger. Fact checking by
Savannah Hugley and Austin Thompson. Our production manager is Daisy Church.
Executive producers are Jason English, Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and
(38:52):
Elsie Crowley. If you're enjoying the show, tell everyone you know,
and don't forget to leave a rating in your favorite
podcast app
There's a kind of fairy tale that I remember from
growing up. You've probably heard a version of it. In
the story, a woman longs for a child. She's a
woodsman's wife or a queen desperate for an air. No
matter what she does, she can't conceive, and so she
turns to the witch next door, the toad in the pond,
(00:23):
the nymph with the silver tongue, any mystical figure willing
to make a deal the woman's sacrifice in return for
a child. The bargain is made. The woman follows their orders,
eats herbs from a secret garden, plants magic seeds deep
in the earth. She offers pieces of her life, her soul,
(00:47):
in exchange for a dream. The thing is for anyone
who's ever struggled with fertility, These ancient tales might sound
eerily familiar. I have been this woman. Maybe you have too.
The difference is today the bargain isn't made with a
witch or a toad. It's with a doctor at a
(01:08):
fertility clinic, one that you've chosen to trust with your future.
IVF In vitro fertilization is a deal made out of necessity,
and the price is steep. You swallow pills and inject
drugs that change your body and your mind in unpredictable ways.
(01:30):
You spend your life savings on tests and procedures and appointments.
You embark on long, repetitive voyages back and forth to
the clinic without knowing how long the journey will ultimately
take or where you'll end up. All for the chance
to hold a child in your arms. Which is why
(01:52):
when I heard about this story about what happened in Nashville,
I couldn't look away. The National Fertility Clinic abruptly shut down,
putting patients and their embryos in limbo.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Have some breaking news to tell you about Tennessee's Attorney
General is suing a Nashville doctor. Just shock and disbelieve
from former patients at the Center for Reproductive Health.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
A fertility clinic closed overnight without warning or explanation, leaving
patients stranded and their embryos locked inside.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
This was our last chance, Like the last of everything,
the dream was over.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
As a reporter, I've spent much of my career documenting
women's experiences with violence. You may have heard my earlier
true crime podcasts, What Happened to Sandy Beal what happened
to Libby Caswell, what happened to Teleinazar. Investigations into women
failed by the people and systems meant to protect them.
(02:52):
Those failures cost women their lives. This story is different. Here,
these women are fire for their futures, for the chance
to become parents, and yet they still find themselves left behind,
abandoned and vulnerable, not just by police and prosecutors, but
(03:13):
by doctors, legislators, and the very business of fertility. The
cost is different, but the betrayal cuts just as deep.
It doesn't matter how much I fight.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
It doesn't matter how sad I get.
Speaker 5 (03:28):
It doesn't matter how much I cry over all of this.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
It doesn't matter.
Speaker 6 (03:31):
How much justice we get.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
None of it's going to get me pregnant.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
This is a story about what happens when a clinic
entrusted with people's most fragile hopes simply collapses, leaving them
with questions, debt, and heartbreak.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
This is the case of cases, and they haven't even
cracked the lid yet.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
It's also about what happens when an industry operates without
real oversight.
Speaker 6 (03:58):
IVF today is far less regulated than virtually any comparable
part of medical practice.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
In the United States and the secrets and scandals discovered
behind the clinic walls.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
I with Garrett, there was a proof that I owned
my embryos, that they were mine.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
At its core, this story is about what it means
to create a family in a precarious system that can
take that chance away in an instant.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
You're not going into fertility treatment from any position of strength.
It's a uniquely vulnerable kind of healthcare creating new life.
We're still not parents, by the.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Way, and the hope that still prevails despite the overwhelming setbacks.
We're going to be moms one day. I'm Melissa Jelson
from School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. This is what
(05:00):
happened in Nashville, Episode one collapse. The part that these
fairy tales about fertility always skip through is what comes
before the desperate visit to the witch or the fairy
begging for a miracle. It can take months, years of
(05:24):
dashed hopes and inexplicable losses to even realize you need
help getting pregnant before your IVF story even begins, and
for many people, it's not a path they imagined that
ever need to take.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
I truly did not know what to expect walking into
a fertility clinic. Anybody that's been there knows that it's scary.
Just walking in there. You kind of feel helpless, you know,
like my body's not doing what it needs to. So
here I am.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
This is Sydney McDowell. She's in her late twenties with
honey blonde hair and a naturally sunny disposition. She lives
just outside Nashville, where she runs a small embroidery business
from home, stitching custom designs for strangers on Etsy.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
I have two daughters. I had one when I was
nineteen and the other when I was twenty two, So
I was really young, young and dumb, as i'd say,
but they saved my life and I raised them as
a single mom until my oldest was six and my
youngest was three, and then I got married to my
(06:27):
high school best friend and they love him so much.
We have the sweetest, splendid family. But we went so
badly to just have a baby to kind of bring
us all together.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Sydney and her husband, Austin, got married in twenty twenty
three and started trying for a baby. Soon after a
few months in it happened. Sydney saw a faint positive
line on a pregnancy test, but at just seven weeks,
she began having intense, painful cramps. At the time, Sydney
(07:01):
was working at a local hospital as an ultrasound tech.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
It felt like I was giving birth and in the
middle mus shift collapsed because I couldn't stand up anymore.
And that's when my e topic just completely ruptured.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And ectopic pregnancy a nightmare most women don't think about
until it happens to them. Sydney's embryo had implanted in
her Phillippian tube instead of her uterus, which meant she
needed emergency surgery at the very hospital where she worked.
The operation saved her life, but the damage to her
(07:36):
Philippian tube was irreversible.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
My life changed that day pretty much.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
At her follow up appointment, her surgeon gently delivered more
difficult news. Looking in her remaining Filippian tube, she had
found signs of endometriosis, a chronic condition where tissue similar
to the lining of the uterus grows outside it, often
pain and fertility issues.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
I remember walking out of that appointment and I sat
in my car and I just bawled. I was only
twenty bob at the time. I didn't expect anything like
this to happen.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Sydney's doctor suggested she speak with a reproductive endocrinologist, a
dedicated fertility doctor who could give her a clearer picture
of what her future might look like.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
She wanted me to receive the best care that I
could get, so she sent me a referral to the
Center for Reproductive Health.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Welcome, Welcome to the Center for Reproductive Health. You may
be wondering what will your first visit be like. You'll
find our staff to be highly personable and eager to
assist you for.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
The Center for Reproductive Health is a small, family run
fertility clinic in Nashville, Tennessee, tucked away on the fourth
floor of a medical building, easy to miss if you
aren't looking for it. Inside, the waiting room is simply
decorated with floral upholstered chairs circling a wooden coffee table.
The space feels slightly dated, but clean and warm. When
(09:08):
Sydney and her husband walk in for their first appointment
in early twenty twenty three, they don't know yet how
much they'll come to associate that room with hope, anxiety,
and everything in between.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Your nurse will obtain a complete medical history as well
as check your vital signs. Then it's the time you've
been looking forward to the most your time with doctor Vasquez.
He will perform a physical examination and then you'll sit
down with him to review your case and review recommendations
for next steps.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
The clinic is run by doctor him Vasquez, a licensed
Board certified OBGYN. He's originally from Chile, where he also
received his medical degree before completing his residency and fellowship
in the US. His resume looks impressive. He had published
peer reviewed research, authored medical textbook, and held faculty positions
(10:02):
at Vanderbilt Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and the University
of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison before eventually opening his own
fertility clinic in Nashville.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
When you look around, you see all the other couples,
and in that moment, I was just curious, like, what
point of their journey are they in.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
I wasn't in Sydney's waiting room at the Center for
Reproductive Health that day, but I have spent a lot
of time in similar waiting rooms at other IVF clinics,
and I can tell you that while none of our
stories are identical, the big emotions that arise inside these
rooms are pretty universal. It's a complicated mix of anxiety, fear,
(10:49):
and excitement.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
With fertility, you're told from the get go that like,
we really don't know a.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Lot about it.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
It's all just kind of a shot in the dark,
and you're like, all right, well, I get I'll pay
you to keep shooting.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
We were, of course, as I was approaching forty, started
to feel the pressure a little bit more and trying
to say, okay, what is.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
The fastest route to some create the cheapest route.
Speaker 6 (11:13):
First, we started off pretty excited. We were like, they're
going to offer more testing, They're going to research a
little bit more than what I already had, because right
now we don't have anything. You know, right now we're
considered unexplained to fertility. They don't know why you're not conceiving.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
I have been married to my wife for seven years now,
and we wanted to grow our family, and obviously we
required assistant reproductive technology. We were just so hopeful. We
looked into all the different fertility centers here in Nashville
and landed on Center for Reproductive Help.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Sydney doesn't know the other women, the other couples who
have passed through this waiting room before her, but she
feels a connection with them. While their fertility journeys are individual,
they're all entrusting the Center for Reproductive Health with their futures,
and for that reason, she feels a flicker of optimism,
(12:11):
like she's in the right place.
Speaker 5 (12:13):
I was also hopeful still that you know, it would
just be, oh, a quick, easy fax. You know, we'll
come here and do this and we'll have a baby.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
At Sydney's first appointment, doctor hime Vasquez explains that he'd
need to perform a laparoscopic surgery to examine her remaining
filopian tube, the one not damaged by her ectopic pregnancy.
The surgery confirms severe endometriosis throughout her reproductive organs. He'd
had to cauterize her remaining filopian tube. If Sidney wants
(12:47):
to get pregnant again, she will have to undergo in
vitro fertilization.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
It was extremely hard. It's okay. I feel like that
took me probably six months to wrap my head around
and be able to accept the reality of the situation.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
IVF is a foreign concept to Sydney. She'd heard of it,
of course, seen it dramatized on TV mentioned in Passing
by Acquaintances, but it had always belonged to someone else's story,
not hers. IVF, she soon learns, will not be an
easy or quick fix. Instead, it will require months of injections, tests, appointments,
(13:29):
and a mountain of hope. All of it is a gamble,
a deal with a doctor she barely knows.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
I was extremely naive. IVF is one of those things
that you don't truly understand the magnitude of it or
what goes into it unless it's your reality.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
A quick primer trying to conceive the old fashioned way
hinges on timing and luck. After sexual intercourse, spur must
find the egg at exactly the right moment, and everything
inside your body, from hormone levels to the condition of
your reproductive organs has to be just right for fertilization
to happen. If you've ever seen Look Who's Talking, the
(14:11):
nineteen eighty nine comedy starring John Travolta and Kirsty Alley,
that opening scene or sperm race to the Egg, as
the Beach Boys I Get Around plays. It's silly but
also pretty accurate. In IVF, there's no blind race, no
sperm frantically trying to find the egg like a shot
(14:32):
in the dark. Instead, patients take medication that stimulates the
ovaries to produce multiple eggs, which doctors then retrieve in
a procedure called an egg retrieval. Then the sperm is
combined with the eggs directly in the lab. That's the
in vitro part of IVF Latin for in glass. Because
(14:53):
eggs are fertilized and develop into embryos in a lab
dish instead of inside the body, from there can be
frozen for later or transferred into the uterus, offering a
more controlled approach. Sydney would soon find herself in a
cycle of daily pills and injections in preparation for an
egg retrieval.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
I remember just coming home with my large box of
medicine and sitting it down on my bathroom counter, and
you see all the sharp containers, you see all the needles,
you see all the medicine that you're gonna have to
draw up yourself and do it home. And it was
just the thought of, like, Okay, am I gonna be
(15:37):
able to do this?
Speaker 1 (15:39):
I had the same question Sydney had when I went
through fertility treatments. IVF is unusual in that, as expensive
complex medical treatments go, it's surprisingly diy to get ready
for an egg retrieval. You need to take injectable drugs
every day, sometimes twice a day, for about two weeks weeks.
(16:01):
Due to the frequency of the shots, it's two time
consuming to travel into a clinic to receive them, so instead,
patients are instructed to do their injections themselves at home.
There's no nurse guiding you through each step, just you
a pile of needles, a YouTube video and the hope
that you're doing it right. Beyond the pain of the shots,
(16:23):
the side effects are not fun. You spend two weeks
feeling swollen, bruised, and incredibly emotional.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
The medicine makes you want to lay in bed all day.
When people say that if takes over your life, it
does in a sense, because that's what I had to
do every single day, and I knew that if I
didn't do that, then that would change the outcome of
my future babies.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
In February twenty twenty four, a few weeks after Sydney
begins her daily injections, doctor Vazkez performs her egg retrieval,
He takes twenty five eggs from her ovaries in a
lab just down the hall. An embryologist, someone trained in
the science of reproduction, fertilizes the eggs with Sydney's husband sperm,
(17:09):
and then the couple waits for the next week. The
embryologist watches closely to see which of their embryos will
grow and which ones won't make it.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
So when they originally had told me that they harvested
twenty five eggs, like, I was like, oh wow, like
this is a great number, you know, I didn't realize
at the time, like how few make it past each stage.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
In the end, six embryos develop and are sent off
for genetic testing. The test called PGTA isn't required, but
it's commonly used. It screens for chromosomal abnormalities that could
lead to miscarriage or failed implantation, helping patients avoid the
heartbreak of transferring an embryo unlikely to thrive.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Later, they called us and told us that we had
three healthy embryos that had made it past the PGT testing,
and they were all girls.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
The next step is the embryo transfer, when doctor Vasquez
will place one of the embryos into Sydney's uterus. If
all goes well, the embryo will implant, begin to grow
and eventually become a healthy pregnancy, a baby.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
We had the date on our calendar, like this is
our transfer day. We were counting down the day. But
it's kind of the light at the end of the
tunnel because you know this is your chance, like this
is your chance that you can get pregnant.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Your baby sister is frozen.
Speaker 5 (18:45):
Well, I she's in a tube. What both colone pas?
She's like frozen in a tube and a big job refrigerator.
I'm so serious, ye you weirdy weirday.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
That's Sydney explaining IVF to her young daughter. She posts
the video of them talking to TikTok and.
Speaker 5 (19:11):
Then one day the doctor is going to get her
out of the tube and he's gonna put her in
my belly and he's going like the eyes though the doctor,
and you're going and hear the baby with him. He's
gonna keep her safe.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Sydney shared some of her IVF process online as a
way to feel less alone, and by March twenty twenty four,
it feels like the finish line is near her embryo
transfer is coming up.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
So when you're going through IVF, the transfer, that's the
big part. It's like we've worked this hard. Anybody in
their AVF journey, like the word transfer is just like
they know what that word stands for.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Just like the egg retrieval. Getting ready for the embryo
transfer involves taking specific drugs at specific times of the
day for a few weeks, and regular check ins at
the clinic.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
It's basically doing everything so that your body is just
one hundred percent ready to get pregnant keep a pregnancy.
I was taking shots and I was wearing three or
four patches a day on my stomach. Was so tired,
(20:25):
I didn't hardly get out of bed.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Embryo transfers aren't guaranteed. Success rates depend on the quality
of the embryo and a range of other factors, but
Sydney has a good shot and she's hopeful. On April fifth,
twenty twenty four, she goes to the Center for Reproductive
Health for a routine monitoring appointment. It's just two weeks
(20:48):
from her embryo transfer, and she arrives around nine thirty
am for her ultrasound and blood work. Today is a
little special though, because her mom's with her.
Speaker 5 (20:59):
I was actually so excited. My mom lives in Kentucky,
which is where Austin and I originally from, so she's
about a two and a half hour drive from me,
so I don't get to see her as much as
i'd love to. Since we were gonna be in Nashville,
we were just gonna make a day of it. We
were gonna go get my levels checked, and we plan
to get lunch. You go to the malls. Honestly, just
(21:19):
have a girl's day. I was really looking forward to
it because you just enjoyed that time with your mom.
We were just talking the whole way up to the office,
having a good time. Got on the elevator, hopeful. We
were talking about how close my transfer actually was, and
like she was just giving me reassurance, like you know,
you've came this far, it's gonna go great.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Based on previous visits, Sidney knows how it's supposed to go. First,
phlebottomus will take her blood. Then a tech will perform
a transvaginal ultrasound, looking inside her uterus to see if
it's an ideal environment for an embryo. At this point,
Sydney could go through the river mole in her sleep,
check in, pay the receptionist, sleeve up for lab work,
(22:06):
Undie's down for ultrasound, and done, see you again soon.
But when she walks into the clinic this time, the
typical routine is off kilter. To start, the receptionist doesn't
seem to want to charge her for the visit.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
I did pay out of pocket for all of my
fertility costs because our insurance doesn't cover any of it.
So I knew when I showed up that day that
I owed them two hundred and seventy five dollars that
would cover my lab work and my ultrasound for the day.
So when I walked in, I already had my debit
card out, and she looked at me and just kind
(22:45):
of looked back down and she's like, actually, just wait
a second, let me go see and i'll see if
you owe anything today, you know, just go have a
seat and they'll come get you in a minute. My
mom asked what just happened, and I said they didn't
want my money, but I don't really understand. She said,
they'll be out here. Maybe it's just a miscommunication. Sydney
(23:07):
and her mom, Wait, I was getting antsy because I
was hungry. I hadn't ate before I went, and I
was kind of just That's when it started feeling weird,
like why is it taking so long again? I just
kind of brushed it off to they're busy. I've worked
at a hospital before. I know how it's like to
(23:28):
get behind. You know, it's okay, they're my fertility clinic.
They're going to give me a baby. I'll be patient.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Something feels off, though, and it isn't just that day.
The clinic had started to feel different. In the last
few weeks. Sydney had started noticing small changes. The friendly
nurses and assistants should come to know had quietly disappeared.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
When you go to fertility clinic all the time, you
become life family to these people. So there were multiple
workers who had I had been at it on Facebook
because they were following me. I was following them well.
I started to realize that they weren't working there anymore.
Like the faces the medical assistants and nurses. They were different.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Sydney had told herself it was normal. Clinics get busy,
doctors retire, staff move on to new jobs. It didn't
mean anything.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
I worked at a small hospital, so I was wondering
if maybe he was getting bought out. I knew that
he was older, so in my head I was trying
to rationalize it that he might be selling his practice to,
you know, somebody else.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Still today is taking a long time. Finally, a woman
Sydney doesn't recognize comes out and calls her name Sydney.
Sydney and her mom both follow the woman down the hall.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
I thought it would be neat for my mom to
see kind of what we go through, because she's never
dealt with infertility or anything, so this is all new
to her too, and she kind of wants to be
able to understand it more to be there for me.
I'm literally just excited, so I'm almost skipping down the
hallway behind her. But then we don't even make it
(25:10):
three rooms down the hallway and she stops and she
opens this old door, and when she opens it, it's
like this dimlt office with a bunch of papers.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
The room that the woman ushers Sydney and her mom
into appears to be some sort of storage space with
a desk in it.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
And I like looked at her because at this point
I'm like, this is really weird. I've been going here
for two years. I've never been in this office. She
just tells me and my mom to sit down, and
she then proceeds to grab a chair and pull it
up in front of me and my mom and just
sits there for a second and like crosses her legs
with her hand on her lap, and like I could
(25:50):
tell at that point that she was anxious, that she
she was freaking out, And of course, in my mind,
I'm like, what in the world is I couldn't I
didn't grasp what the possibilities could be. She's like, I
don't know how to tell you this. Our clinic is closing.
We'll be closing. We won't be here after today. I
(26:12):
felt like I was unpunked for a second going to
lie I literally feel my heart just dropping and I'm
in tears at this point. You have to keep in
mind to I'm two weeks away from a transfer, so
my hormones were extremely high.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Sydney is spiraling, but she forces herself to concentrate on
what the employee is saying about doctor Vaskaz and the clinic.
The woman explains that the staff hasn't been paid and
the clinic is apparently trying to come up with the
money to keep operations going.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
She starts to go into detail that they had received
an email from Elena Vasquez that morning, which is his daughter,
stating that he did not have the funds to pay
them and that they would not receive a paycheck for
the previous two weeks that they had already worked, and
that he also not only owes his employees now, but
(27:06):
he owes the embryologist money he never paid her for
making our embryos. She had the worst look of fear
on her face.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Sydney tries to make sense of it all, but the
information is coming fast and it's overwhelming.
Speaker 5 (27:23):
I felt like at that momently everything in the past
two years that I had been working so hard for
and I was so excited, like I felt in that
moment that the carpet was just pulled completely out from
underneath me. My mom finally looked up at her and said, so, now,
what do we need to do? And so she said,
(27:43):
if I was you, I would get everything I could
out of this office today.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
The woman goes on to tell Sydney that if she
was in her shoes, her first priority would be to
get her medical records. Complete, accurate records would be essential
in transitioning to another fertility clinic. So Sydney rushes back
to the front desk and starts filling out the paperwork.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
The girl at the front desk released my medical records
right there.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
And then Sidney's mother asks the big question, the million
dollar question, the one that Sydney, in her state of shock,
never thought to ask.
Speaker 5 (28:24):
My Mom's like, well what about your embryos?
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Standing in the waiting room at the Center for Reproductive Health,
Sydney is struck by a new realization. She now has
her medical records, which she'll absolutely need to have any
chance of changing to a new clinic. But to perform
an embryo transfer, you need an embryo.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
In that moment, I was so worried about this cycle,
and I didn't think for a second that this clinic
is also the one that my embryos are being stored at.
This clinic doesn't have an off site storage. These embryos
are stored in their facility there.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Sydney's three embryos are inside a cryogenic tank at the
clinic right now. They're submerged in liquid nitrogen, stored it
negative three hundred and twenty one degrees fahrenheit. She can't
just walk out with them.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
One of the girls that had been upfront, she came
back with the post it note and it said Fertility
Couriers and it had a number on it. She said,
there's a guy named Ta. He is who reuse at
Center for Reproductive Health to move our embryos, so he's
familiar with us. You need to call him. And I'm like, okay,
(29:42):
and say, what what am I supposed to say?
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Sydney goes to her car and calls the courier ty,
explaining what she has just learned, that the Center for
Reproductive Health is collapsing and if she wants access to
her embryos, she needs to get them out asap.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
At first, I think he thought I was crazy. Honestly,
he probably thought I was insane because I was like,
please go get my embryos now they're closing. And then
he said his first answert was so, who's watching the tanks?
And that part hadn't even crossed my mind. And so
then that hits me that if it's all the staff
walks out, who is watching the tanks?
Speaker 1 (30:25):
The tanks that embryos are stored in don't run on autopilot.
They need to be monitored regularly by trained staff. Temperatures
must be checked and locked. Liquid nitrogen must be replenished.
If the tanks are neglected, the embryos can be lost
and all the possibility that they carried gone. Ty tell
(30:46):
Sydney he'll do whatever he can to get her embryos out.
Speaker 5 (30:49):
And then Tas says, so where we taking them to?
And I'm like, I don't know. I'm still in the
parking lot in my car, and I said, I don't
know where. And I'm like, well, where do you, like,
you know, do you have a suggestion? And he said, well,
I actually know that Nashville Fertility Clinic is right down
the road from where you're at right now. So I said, okay,
(31:13):
let me see what I can do. At this point,
my mom and I walk to Nashville Fertility Clinic from
the Center for Reabtective Health with my manical records, and
I'm bawling.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
With tears running down her face. Sydney explains her predicament
to the Nashville Fertility Clinic. The employees seem as shocked
as she is, but they quickly confirm they will store
her embryos as soon as tie the courier can physically
get them to the clinic. Still, the front desk person
needs her to understand Sydney won't be able to do
(31:48):
her embryo transfer in two weeks as planned. In fact,
it could take months before she can try again.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
And she said, now, let me tell you, we will
be more than happy to take you as a patient,
but we aren't going to just do your transfer. We
are going to have to assign you to a doctor
and you're gonna have to go from there with what
they want to do. So I kind of realized in
(32:15):
that second, like I'm starting over essentially. So then I
just started crying again because I was like, I felt
so close and then all of a sudden, I'm so
far away again. I have my daughters to explain this to.
I have my husband's family. Everybody's like ready for us
to have this transfer, and now I don't even have
a doctor.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Sydney and her mom go home and try to digest
the turn of events. There will be no embryo transfer
anytime soon. Sidney has to start again as a new
patient at a different clinic. A baby is now even
further out of reach. Over the weekend, Sydney keeps waiting
for some kind of acknowledgment from the clinic. Something is wrong,
(33:01):
that what the employee told her was true, that staff
hadn't been paid, that they were planning to stay home.
But online, the Center for Reproductive Health is presenting as
business as usual.
Speaker 5 (33:14):
And checking their website, you know, like did I miss something?
To look on their website and nothing's updated.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
In fact, around the same time as Sydney's appointment, they
post a cheerful message on Facebook congratulating an ultrasound tech
on her three year work anniversary.
Speaker 5 (33:32):
So then at that point I was like, Okay, maybe
it's maybe I'm blowing this out of proportion. This is
not actually happening, Like nobody's actually talked to doctor Vasquez.
We don't even know if this is really going on.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Sydney wants to be wrong, she really does, but things
aren't adding up, and so, unsure of what else to do,
she posts about it on TikTok, hoping someone somewhere might
know more.
Speaker 5 (33:58):
Okay, so normally don't get on here and talk or
anything because slightly awkward, and I have been sharing my
AVF journey this far. At this point, having a mental
breakdown because I am approximately two and a half weeks
from when I should be having a transfer. Just trying
to stay positive because what else is there to do
(34:19):
at this point. Hopefully my lottery reacts well to just
cutting off these fratility medicines. I know it's not really healthy.
That's kind of an update for now. No IBF right
now working on a new doctor.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Sydney doesn't have a big following on TikTok, but suddenly
her videos are getting attention. Other patients from the Center
for Reproductive Health start finding her, people who are just
as confused and just as in the dark.
Speaker 5 (34:49):
I've realized that people had appointments on Friday and they
weren't told they were seen, they were given bloodwork, they
had ultrasounds done, and they were sent home.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
And something ty the Courier said when she first called
him keeps running through her mind.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
He started, he said, well, this is a big deal. Like,
your embryos aren't the only ones there? What are they
doing with the rest of them?
Speaker 1 (35:15):
It is slowly dawning on Sydney that despite the terrible
situation she's in, she's actually really lucky. It seems she
may be the only patient who got this quiet tip
off and the only one who got a head start
at moving her embryos to a new clinic, But she
still has to get them out over the weekend. She
(35:37):
remains in constant contact with Tye to coordinate the move.
Speaker 5 (35:41):
So he taketed me that morning and said, you know,
today's the day. This is the time we plan to
pick them up. This is how long it takes to
get there. I sat and stared at my phone for
the entire two and a half hour window.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Tye arranges for an employee of the Center for Reproductive
Health to grant access to the closed clinic. The handoff
goes as planned, and Sydney's embryos are whisked away in
a mini freezer tank.
Speaker 5 (36:08):
And as soon as they were accepted to Nashville Fertility,
he did text me and let me know, like they've
made it safely. I've you know, they've arrived. Everything's good.
That was the biggest relief for me, was just knowing
that I got them out.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Despite wondering if her doubts and urgency were really necessary.
Sydney is ultimately right. The clinic never opens again. Sydney's
embryos are safe, but there are still roughly twelve hundred
others stored inside the now shuttered clinic. For the patients
(36:50):
who own them, they will determine how many kids they have,
if they have kids at all, their future families hinge
on those embryos. Else what's going to happen to them.
Speaker 5 (37:03):
At that point, it didn't occur to me what fight
was gonna come to follow.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
This season on what happened in Nashville.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
Everything in IVF is a gamble.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
We took this gamble.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Then, while the wind is inside of me, she goes,
I do you think that's your ovary?
Speaker 5 (37:32):
Me and a couple others realized this is bad. This
is not normal. It's like okay, like there's no not
going to be anybody left. Heard this clinic up like.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
It's going to fall, and I immediately was like, holy shit,
Like that is my biggest fear confirmed now. So I
just had zero trust that this was right.
Speaker 6 (37:56):
Like, you just feel disgusting, you feel violated, we feel manipulated,
like all of the emotions. You know at that point
you're deceived.
Speaker 5 (38:05):
We would just never accept this in other areas of medicine.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
Unfortunately, people have figured out that this group of people
are easy to take advantage of because we're desperate. What
Happened in Nashville is a production of School of Humans
and iHeart Podcasts, written, reported, and hosted by me Melissa Jelson.
Our producer is Etaly's Perez. Our senior producer is Amelia Brock,
(38:30):
with additional production by Emily Seiner and Carl Catele. Theme
song by Jesse Nice Swanger, Sound design, scoring and mixing
by Jeremy Thal and Jesse Nye Swanger. Fact checking by
Savannah Hugley and Austin Thompson. Our production manager is Daisy Church.
Executive producers are Jason English, Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and
(38:52):
Elsie Crowley. If you're enjoying the show, tell everyone you know,
and don't forget to leave a rating in your favorite
podcast app
Host
Melissa Jeltsen
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.