Lawsuit Again Cord Blood Bank of Canada
As Cord Blood Banking concern of Canada faces a $600,000 lawsuit, patients across the land are concerned about the status of their children'due south stalk cells they are storing at the facility.
Co-ordinate to Wellness Canada, stalk cells in cord blood can be used in the treatment of sure health weather condition, including leukemia.
In 2015, Cord Blood Bank reportedly failed an inspection past Health Canada, merely the claret bank was allowed to operate only if information technology stored samples for the potential use by the person to which they belonged and not their family members.
Since there is a low probability that a person'due south own stem cells can be used for their own treatment, the change made it unlikely that the stalk cell samples could be used at all.
Many Cord Blood Bank customers say they chose to store their children'due south stem cells at the blood banking company because of the potential that they could be used for family unit members. After Health Canada's order, some clients attempted to transfer their children'southward stem cell samples to a dissimilar facility.
However, they take reportedly been unable to get through to Cord Blood Bank. The company's outgoing voicemail message reportedly states that String Claret Banks is not returning calls due to a medical emergency.
Co-ordinate to a CBC News report , Heather Girling and Lucio Valvasori are concerned most the lack of data.
The Toronto couple has reportedly spent more $8,000 to store stem cells for 3 of their children.
"We put all this money and effort toward our children's hereafter," Valvasori said. "Nosotros could have invested it, we could have used it for other things and we decided, no, allow'due south practice this for them."
After Cord Blood Bank failed to charge annual storage fees last twelvemonth, they are wondering if the stem cells they stored are nonetheless feasible.
"I've left numerous messages. No one's chosen me back," Girling said. "I've actually left letters saying that we needed the blood."
In late 2017, Natasha Bitsakakis-Pack of Waterloo, Ontario, tried to move her daughters' stalk cell samples to another facility after her younger girl was diagnosed with a rare genetic syndrome. Cord Blood Banking concern allegedly refused to release the samples unless she paid $33,500.
Bitsakakis-Pack and her husband subsequently filed an application in Ontario Superior Court seeking an order forcing String Blood Bank to release the samples. Their instance settled out of court and, in February 2019, their children's samples were transferred to some other cord blood banking facility.
When the samples were tested at the new facility, the results showed that they contained a low percentage of viable stem cells and were therefore "unusable for whatever medical purpose," Bitsakakis-Pack indicated in a statement of claim she filed in December.
In February 2018, Health Canada published data online nigh string claret banking, in which it noted that the probability of using one's own cord blood for treatment is low, because cells from a good for you donor are preferred. According to Wellness Canada , the chances of a person using their ain cord blood for treatment is estimated to be betwixt 1 in 20,000 and 1 in 250,000.
Cord Claret Depository financial institution argued in its statement of defence in Bitsakakis-Pack's lawsuit that it had only stored samples intended for an private's use, not for family use. However, CBC News reports that more than than ii dozen clients of String Blood Banking company told them that was not their agreement when they signed upwardly. Some have reported that they paid an boosted fee to store an actress sample to use for a family member.
Girling and Valvasori reportedly stored their second son'southward string blood with Cord Blood Bank in October 2013. The child died in July 2014, but String Claret Bank after reportedly told them that they could keep to store his samples for potential employ for their other child, they continued to pay to store them.
Girling was reportedly charged the almanac storage fee for the deceased child'south samples for two years later Cord Claret Bank was no longer allowed past Wellness Canada to store the samples.
"When you lot lose a child it'due south a life judgement of sadness, and it kind of puts things in a perspective of what's of import," Girling said. "People brand mistakes, but come clean."
The $600,000 lawsuit against Cord Blood Bank and its owner Bernadette Ellison accuses them of failing to store the cord blood samples properly to ensure they would remain viable for medical use.
Federal court documents show that Cord Blood Bank is on the hook for more than $724,000 in unpaid taxes since September 2018.
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Source: https://ca.topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news/cord-blood-bank-of-canada-leaves-parents-in-limbo-amid-600k-lawsuit/
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