CHESTERFIELD — For at least the second time in eight months, fertility patients storing their frozen eggs and embryos at St. Luke’s Hospital were left frightened after getting a letter stating that the hospital laboratory had moved their tissues to a storage facility in Texas. “Our facility has ceased operations and will no longer store frozen specimens.
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Your specimens were recently relocated to ReproTech’s Garland, TX Cryostorage center,” read the latest letter , sent this week to patients via email from St. Luke’s. Maddie Bobbitt, 33, of St.
Louis, said she received a letter and email from ReproTech out of the blue on Nov. 29, saying the hospital had sent the facility Bobbitt’s four embryos. Bobbitt has since gotten her embryos returned to another nearby storage facility, but that day was extremely scary, she said.
“No one told me this was happening,” she said. “And when you are going through IVF and desperately trying to have a baby and your embryos are everything to you — you spend tens of thousands of dollars making them — and to have them shipped without even asking my permission was really frustrating and really concerning.” Hospital officials did not answer questions about why their facility “ceased operations,” why patients were not informed ahead of time or why a facility as far away as Texas was selected.
Hospital officials released the following statement: “In 2023, after careful consideration, St. Luke’s decided to no longer .