The embryos are safe. So are the frozen eggs and sperm at the NYU Fertility Center. But saving them required dramatic effort on the part of hospital workers, as Hurricane Sandy took down power and the backup generator failed.
“There were heroes here,” Dr. Jamie Grifo, the fertility center’s program director said in an interview today, describing the scramble Monday night and Tuesday.
The building that houses the Fertility Center is located at 38th Street and First Avenue, which is outside the flood zone. But by Monday evening the power had failed, the basement had filled with water, and the fire department warned they needed to shut down the generator because they feared it was a fire hazard. The staff at the center offered to pump out the water in order to keep the generator functioning, and did so through the night. Read full article.