Experts to assess ‘mental harm’ suffered by victims of Monash IVF bungle

Assessing the mental fallout from a Monash IVF bungle in which healthy embryos may have been destroyed will be a “contentious issue”, a court has heard.

Technician in blue gloves does control check of the in vitro fertilization process using a microscope. Closeup. Horizontal. Picture: Istock

The extent of psychiatric harm suffered by victims of Monash IVF’s bungled genetic testing program will be a “contentious issue”, lawyers for the fertility giant have told a court.

Experts will be called by the fertility specialists to assess the mental and physical damage to hundreds of affected patients from across the country as a landmark class action heads to trial.

More than 200 women and men have now joined the major legal fight after it was discovered Monash IVF may have destroyed healthy embryos after they were incorrectly deemed “abnormal” by the faulty screening test.

The Herald Sun revealed last week Monash IVF’s suspended non-invasive preimplantation genetic testing program has been axed following a nine-month investigation.

The probe found “differences” in results between the non-invasive (cell-free) testing introduced in May 2019 and the traditional biopsy procedure.

But the discovery may have come too late for many families who say they have lost precious time and embryos and fear they have been robbed of their chance to have children.

In a case management hearing in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Wednesday, defence lawyers for Monash IVF said they would be calling on expert witnesses to assess just how much mental harm the patients and their partners had suffered.

“It will certainly be a contentious issue,” Pasquale Zappia told the court.

“A really critical issue in this case is that it is said by reason of the use of this test, the plaintiffs suffered mental harm,” Mr Zappia said.

“But the circumstances of each plaintiff will differ and the reasons why they suffer mental harm may differ,” he said.

Angela and Phil Ceberano were caught up in Monash IVF’s bungled genetic testing saga. Picture: David Caird

The court heard the mental, physical and economic suffering of the patients’ partners would also be an issue.

The Herald Sun last week revealed Monash IVF’s devastating error resulted in some women using donor embryos after being told their own weren’t viable, only to learn they may have been able to use them all along.

One woman, now seven months pregnant with a donor embryo, said she was incorrectly told her own were abnormal and had been destroyed, despite being kept in storage for several months.

Mr Zappia said expert embryologists and scientists specialising in IVF will be relied upon by the defence to examine key issues of the case including the efficacy and reliability of the test and whether the destroyed embryos were in fact viable.

Lawyers for both parties will now begin the mammoth task of producing a swag of documents, including individual patient files, minutes of board meetings and material relating to the pilot and trial of the testing program.

Min Guo, for the plaintiffs, said it was still unclear the size of the class action but the screening test itself was conducted about 13,000 times between May 2019 and October 2020.

The court heard the discovery process is set to take some time and any trial date is unlikely till late in 2022.

The matter will return to court before Justice John Dixon later this year.

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