The firm acted for several individuals who suffered damage to sperm in storage at a centre for reproductive medicine.
Males who were diagnosed with cancer and who were to be treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy are given the option to produce sperm samples prior to treatment, to enable them to have the opportunity of having children in the future if the treatment makes them infertile. The sperm samples are frozen and stored in specialist freezers.
The storage of sperm is governed by the Human Fertilisation Embryology Authority (HFEA) and for those patients who have sperm stored for medical reasons, there are strict guidelines on how the sperm should be stored. The samples should be split across two storage vessels and all vessels should be alarmed to ensure they cannot be switched off and suffer a drop in temperature without it being noticed.
Several patients were contacted to advise that there had been a critical incident and that one of the freezers containing sperm samples had been inadvertently switched off. The fluctuations in temperature meant the samples were no longer viable. Several individuals brought cases against the Trust for failing to have a system in place to prevent freezers from being switched off and the samples ultimately being damaged. Some of those patients lost the opportunity to father their own children and suffered psychological damage as a result.
Cases vary in value but generally settle for a five-figure sum each.