Burst water main disrupts fertility services at Boston hospital

• A burst water main caused flooding at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, affecting approximately 200 patients seeking fertility services.
• The disruption has resulted in additional costs for patients, including canceled flights and insurance exclusions for the new year.
• A water main rupture occurred on the 8th floor during construction on Christmas Eve, affecting multiple hospital areas.

A burst water main flooded Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, disrupting services for about 200 patients seeking in vitro fertilization, some of them devastated.

Alexis Goulet, who runs a private IVF support group on Facebook, said Wednesday that many women were notified of the cancellation via voicemail, with no emotional support or information about alternative schedules or reimbursement of costs. He said he had not received any.

Professor Goulet also noted that embryo transfer requires a huge amount of careful preparation.

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“All the medications, internal ultrasounds, blood tests,” she said. “Sometimes it goes on every day for a month.”

Goulet added that the disruption is causing some women to incur additional costs, such as canceled flights and new insurance deductions to start the new year.

A pipe burst on the eighth floor of Brigham and Women's, which was under construction, around 1 a.m. Christmas Eve, hospital spokeswoman Jessica Pastore said. A significant amount of water was released, impacting multiple areas of the hospital, including the IVF lab, she said.

Professor Pastore said all frozen embryos and eggs are kept safely in cryogenic tanks in the lab, but lab staff cannot open the tanks until the risk of mold growing within the damp walls is reduced. He said the process would likely take a month.

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Pastore said the hospital has contacted all affected patients. Some procedures, such as egg retrieval and fresh embryo transfer, were continuing elsewhere.

One woman from New Hampshire said she started the IVF process about 16 months ago and was finally ready to undergo the embryo transfer procedure when she received a cancellation call on Christmas Day.

“All the tests, all the procedures, everything I put into my body, it all boils down to this one day, implanting that embryo to make a baby and realizing the dream I've had since day one.” said the woman. she said. “So when I got that call I was really shocked. I don't have any other words to describe it.”

The woman said she requested anonymity because she and her wife had kept the IVF process a secret until they became pregnant.

The woman said she was very communicative at the fertility clinic, but was unable to contact anyone at the hospital to get answers. She said at one point she couldn't even leave a voice message.

“The timeline has not been made public. There has been no verbal communication from the Brigham,” the woman said. “We are left in the dark and have to navigate a situation without answers.”

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A second woman, who requested anonymity due to concerns that using her name could have a negative impact on her IVF treatment, expressed similar concerns about the hospital's lack of communication, saying the hospital was more concerned about psychological He said that support should be provided.

Pastore said the hospital is providing resources, including mental health resources, to affected patients, and the hospital will reduce financial and insurance costs associated with the flooding.

The Brigham, which serves as a teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School, experienced flooding in 2014 that also damaged its in vitro fertilization lab.

Pastore said the hospital has installed shutoff valves on multiple floors of the hospital to prevent the problem from happening again.