ST. LOUIS — For Mary and Jimmy Gorman, having a child isn’t just a dream.
“Means everything to me," Jimmy Gorman said. It’s a desperate hope.
“I'll do anything it takes to have a family," Mary Gorman said.
After years of trying to start a family, they traveled from Memphis to the renowned Infertility Center of St Louis, led by Dr. Sherman Silber. The couple entrusted the practice with their hopes for in vitro fertilization.
IVF is a medical procedure where an egg, after being surgically retrieved, is fertilized by sperm in a lab with controlled conditions. The fertilized egg, or embryo, is then inserted for implantation into the uterus to achieve pregnancy. IVF is commonly used to improve the chances of getting pregnant when struggling with infertility. The Gormans said it was an expensive and emotionally taxing process from the start, but they were hopeful.
“I heard really good things about this doctor," Mary said.
But after nine months of daily injections, invasive procedures and about $70,000, their hopes were shattered.
Mary’s embryos were retrieved on Sept. 19, 2023. She had two viable embryos. The first embryo was transferred on Feb. 7, and it wasn’t successful. On May 14, she came to the Infertility Center of St. Louis to get her second embryo transferred.
“I don’t want this to ever happen to anybody again," Mary said. "This is horrible."
Just moments before Mary’s long-awaited embryo transfer, dressed in her hospital gown, she said her doctor told her the procedure could not happen.
“Because they lost it. They don't know where it was at," she said.
Her embryo was missing.
“I don't understand why that would happen or why it happened. They can’t answer me. They won't give me an answer," she said.
“What's your biggest fear right now?” Senior Investigative Reporter Paula Vasan asked the married couple.
“That, you know, if I get a knock on the door in 10 years at my house saying, 'Hey, Dad,' and I've never met my child before," Jimmy said.
They said they fear her embryo was put into someone else.
“They made a mistake. They screwed up," said Josh Tolin, the attorney for the Gormans.
Tolin said he plans to sue the fertility clinic and St. Luke's Hospital, where the clinic stored embryos. He is urging both the Infertility Center of St. Louis and St. Luke’s Hospital to pay. He has not yet filed a lawsuit.
“It's a finger-pointing process," Tolin said. “I don't know that we'll ever get the truth.”
The Gormans fear their missing embryo could be connected to the recent decision by St. Luke’s Hospital to move its embryo storage facility to Texas. Mary and another former patient told the I-Team they had no warning.
Madeline Bobbitt told the I-Team she was not notified of her embryos being moved to Texas. She said she was an IVF patient with Dr. Sherman Silber with the Infertility Center of St. Louis and her embryos were stored at St. Luke’s Hospital. In November 2023, she said she was notified by ReproTech in Texas that St. Luke’s Hospital had shipped her four frozen embryos there without any warning.
The hospital system said it has always followed strict protocol. A spokesperson with St. Luke’s told us in a statement:
“At the end of 2023, after careful consideration, St. Luke’s decided to no longer offer assisted reproductive technology services, including in vitro fertilization and storage of frozen specimens. Once these services ceased, St. Luke’s began transitioning storage of these specimens to our partner of many years, ReproTech, at their regional facility in Garland, Texas. ReproTech is a premier provider of long-term storage services and recognized for storage excellence and reliability. Dr. Silber informed his patients of this transition with multiple communications beginning in the Fall of 2023. Patients have been notified that, upon request, their specimens are available to be transferred to a different fertility clinic or storage service if they so choose. Nothing has changed for our patients other than the storage location of their specimens. St. Luke’s dedication to providing exceptional care to every patient, every time, is the foundation of everything we do. St. Luke’s has always, including during this transition, maintained stringent policies and practices related to the collection, preservation and storage of reproductive specimens and embryos, and any claims to the contrary are without merit.”
The Infertility Center of St. Louis and Dr. Silber did not respond to our multiple attempts to get in touch over the past month.
Now, the Gormans are left in limbo, demanding accountability, demanding answers and, above all, wanting a family.
“That could have been my chance to have a child," Mary said.
The I-Team discovered there is no data on how often providers misplace embryos. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine told us fertility clinics must have strict protocols to prevent these types of medical errors, and clinics are ethically obligated to disclose them.
Texas-based medical malpractice attorney Kathryn Snapka, who underwent IVF herself, told us in an email: “The physical preparation to maximize the number of eggs, the hormone injections, the pain of the egg retrieval and the stress surrounding in vitro process to see if there are any viable embryos to transfer make the IVF process an emotional rollercoaster."
Tim Schlesinger with the Midwest Fertility Law Group said: “These patients are entitled to their medical records. If they have properly requested their medical records from the hospital, there is no apparent reason they shouldn’t have the records.”
Danielle Faith, founder of St. Louis-based nonprofit Making a Miracle, an organization that caters to the mental health of those struggling with Infertility, told us: "It's truly a tragedy that something like this can happen for a couple that has already been through so much to try and fulfill their dreams of becoming parents. The impact on them before this happened was most likely already so heavy. I couldn't imagine how they are feeling. Honestly, being deep in treatment, that never crossed my mind of being a possibility that could happen, because you put so much trust in the process and the clinic that is taking care of you."