As a Native New Yorker and someone who has dealt with infertility issues, I remember all too well when Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012 and the NYU Fertility Clinic lost its power. While fertility clinics may not always be top of mind in a natural disaster, to those who have are deep in the hormonal trenches of trying to conceive, it can be profoundly daunting.
When a couple is going through infertility treatment such as IVF, you begin taking hormone shots to produce more eggs. While taking these shots, you are monitored every couple of days to see when the eggs are ready for retrieval and then fertilized to produce embryos. Of the embryos produced, some will be transferred to the uterus and some may be frozen in case the first round of IVF isn’t successful, or if it is successful, you can use any stored embryos for an attempt to have additional children. This can all take place within a two-week period.
Now imagine spending thousands of dollars, not being able to conceive as easy as you were told you could in High School, you’re in the middle of a cycle and there’s a life-threatening hurricane that may prevent you from having your retrieval OR threatening to knock out power to the generator that is keeping your frozen embryos safe and sound. Terrifying, right?
In the case of NYU, thanks to quick thinking and a group effort, not only were eggs and embryos at the fertility clinic spared but they even managed an egg retrieval during the storm.
When I heard of Hurricane Irma heading to Florida and how very bad it was expected to be, I instantly thought of the IVFMD. It is one of the biggest fertility facilities in Florida and has assisted creating 6000 babies through IVF. They have five locations in Florida, 10 reproductive endocrinologists, 7 senior embryologists, 4 junior embryologists and 4 IVF labs located in Naples, Jupiter, Cooper City and South Miami ALL in the line of Hurricane Irma’s path.
Luckily, once the storm passed, I was able to speak to the folks at IVFMD to ask how they prepared and how they made it through.
“As far as the value of good preparation: This was not our first rodeo!”, Dr. Juergen Eisermann, founder and Medical Director of IVFMD, stated. “The amount of careful preparation by our team of administrators, IT technicians, on - site building manager and the amazing cooperative efforts of our well trained and fully committed embryology team and nursing staff has allowed us to open 3 of our 5 offices on Tuesday, September 12th, for full service to all our patients.”
Ineabelle Collazo, Embryology Director agreed and stressed just how much the IVFMD group pulled together. “Hurricane preparation is not a one person’s job. It’s a team of individuals making sure that all of our i’s are dotted and our t’s are crossed. We function as one making sure that everything we do is protected.”
And when you live in Florida, this, unfortunately, has come up a few times. Mrs. Collazo adds, “Providing service to our patients for over 25 years, we have had our share of hurricanes and tropical storms. We have developed standard operating procedures with regards to inclement weather and particularly hurricanes and are constantly revising and modifying our protocols based on our experiences and experiences from other centers throughout the nation. Anything we can do to protect our patient’s beautiful cargo, without putting anyone’s life at risk, we will do!”
Kristen M. Stokes, the Business Development and Financial Services Supervisor also pointed out that, “Regardless of personal damages, from those still not being able to get to their homes, damage to their homes, intermittent phone service, lack of power or water; all of our staff rallied to ensure the care and trust of our patients remains our focus.”
I know for myself, I went through three rounds of IVF and each time, we had to save up for it. It’s financially and emotionally stressful enough to go through the process of fertility treatment but to then worry that a hurricane is literally going to flush your chances down the drain can’t help an already stressful process. When I shared that I couldn’t imagine what that would be like for patients, Ms. Stokes responded, “This is why, even with the 11pm advisory of the hurricane warning, we still made the decision to go in the next day and take care of the morning patients as long as we could do so expeditiously to ensure the safety of our patients and our employees.”
No doubt, any patients in the middle of their cycles particularly appreciated that. Dr. Eisermann gave one such example. “We helped one of our patients from Brazil to actually transfer her medical information to a recommended physician in her home town so she could continue her stimulation safely without interruption while being out of harm’s way during the hurricane.”
Oscar Machado, the C.O.O. of IVFMD, takes the efforts of his team and the commitment to each patient very seriously. “The reality is our specialty requires us to be prepared at all times. South Florida living offers us the opportunity to be basking in the sun most of the time, but we do have daily passing showers with no names that take-out power lines and cause damages. Little and routine storms have an impact on what we do and how we offer our service. Our practice is always ready and our staff is committed to be available to service our community. It takes more than one person…it takes a team of individuals that are dedicated and compassionate about what they do.”
If you’re following the news, you know that it isn’t just hurricane season right now, it seems to be a more intense hurricane season than in the past. I asked Dr. Eisermann if he had any words of wisdom or advice to other clinics or patients that may be affected. “As far as emotions are concerned, no one wants to lose a stimulation for IVF after having started down the road to a successful egg retrieval. Having been through Katrina and Andrew (yes, we are 26 years into doing this!), our advice to be cautious and proactive is always combined with a perspective for the next step. In times like these, the strength of this system is being put to the test - we came through in flying colors!”
As a patient care advocate, I would urge you not to be shy about asking your clinic what their protocol is should a storm blow through your town. Ask about generators, back-up plans and how they have handled any similar acts of god in the past because as moody as a woman going through IVF may be, no one seems to be more moody or hormonal than Mother Nature!