The Last Day — Nashville E1

Summary

What Happened in Nashville

Episode 1: "The Last Day"

Podcast: What Happened in Nashville, iHeartPodcasts
Date: December 3, 2025
Host: Melissa Jeltsen

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Overview:

This opening episode launches a deeply personal, investigative journey into the sudden collapse of the Center for Reproductive Health, a Nashville fertility clinic. Host Melissa Jeltsen guides listeners through the emotional fallout and systemic failures following the clinic’s abrupt closure, focusing on patient Sydney McDowell’s story as emblematic of a wider crisis in the US fertility industry. The episode sets the stage for an exploration of hope, loss, accountability, and the hidden vulnerabilities in fertility care.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Fertility Fairy Tale Meets Harsh Reality

• Narrative Parallels: Jeltsen draws a poignant parallel between ancient fairy tales about women making bargains for children and the modern IVF process, emphasizing the emotional volatility and profound personal sacrifices involved.
  • “The difference is, today the bargain isn't made with a witch or a toad. It's with a doctor at a fertility clinic … IVF… is a deal made out of necessity, and the price is steep.” (Melissa Jeltsen, 02:37)
• Personal Connection: Jeltsen positions herself and many listeners as women who know the yearning for a child and the gambles of fertility treatment, making the narrative intimate.

2. Introducing Sydney McDowell

• Background: Sydney is a young mother and small business owner, with a blended family looking to have another child.
• Medical Trauma: She suffers an ectopic pregnancy that results in emergency surgery, irreversible damage, and a diagnosis of endometriosis.
  • “My life changed that day pretty much.” (Sydney McDowell, 10:15)
• First Steps Toward IVF: Sydney is referred to the Center for Reproductive Health, run by the seemingly reputable Dr. Jaime Vazquez.

3. The Dizzying IVF Process

• Learning Curve: Sydney and the host emphasize how little most people know about IVF until they’re in it, describing the overwhelming medical and emotional intensity of treatment.
• Financial & Emotional Stakes: No insurance coverage means Sydney pays out-of-pocket, accentuating concerns over cost, outcomes, and the relentless hope that each step brings.
  • “IVF is one of those things that you don't truly understand the magnitude of it…unless it's your reality.” (Sydney McDowell, 16:11)
• DIY Healthcare: Powerful description of patients injecting themselves at home, echoing the theme of self-reliance within a system offering little support:
  • “IVF is unusual in that, as expensive, complex medical treatments go, it's surprisingly DIY...there's no nurse guiding you through each step. Just you, a pile of needles, a YouTube video, and the hope that you're doing it right.” (Melissa Jeltsen, 18:15)

4. From Hope to Collapse: The Clinic Shutdown

• Sudden Change in Atmosphere: Sydney notices disappearances of familiar staff and growing unease in the clinic's waiting room.
• The Announcement: During what should have been a routine appointment before her embryo transfer, Sydney is told the clinic is closing with immediate effect.
  • “She just tells me and my mom to sit down...And, like, I could tell at that point that, like, she was anxious, that she, she was freaking out...‘I don't know how to tell you this. Our clinic is closing. We'll be closing. We won't be here after today.’” (Sydney McDowell, 30:07)
• Patient Fallout: Staff hadn’t been paid; the embryologist’s fees are unpaid; patients are advised, “If I was you, I would get everything I could out of this office today.” (Sydney McDowell, 32:01)

5. Scramble for Records and Embryos

• Immediate Action: Sydney secures her medical records—crucial for any chance of continued care elsewhere—but is shaken about the fate of her embryos still stored onsite.
• Fertility Courier Rush: She’s given contact info for Ty, the embryo transport courier, who intervenes to safeguard the embryos.
  • “He said his first answer was, so who's watching the tanks?...if his office staff walks out, who is watching the tanks?” (Sydney McDowell, 37:12)
• Transfer to New Clinic: The embryos are successfully transported to Nashville Fertility Clinic, but Sydney realizes she’s starting over, with no imminent hope of transfer.

6. Shock, Viral Response, and a Widening Crisis

• Gaslighting and Silence: The clinic continues to post as if nothing has happened; staff and other patients appear unaware of the closure.
• Community Online: Sydney shares her story on TikTok, becoming a beacon for confused former patients. Many discover the truth only after her post goes viral.
• A Systemic Failure: Jeltsen and Sydney reflect on how many may not be as lucky; “Your embryos aren’t the only ones there. What are they doing with the rest of them?” (Ty, relayed at 42:17)
• Scope of the Problem: By episode’s end, we learn that 1,200 embryos remain in limbo, their fate—and that of their would-be families—uncertain.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “None of it's going to get me pregnant.”
  — Sydney McDowell (06:09), summing up the heartbreak of justice and compensation not being able to replace her lost opportunity.

• “You spend two weeks feeling swollen, bruised, and incredibly emotional.”
  — Melissa Jeltsen (18:15), laying bare the physical and emotional toll of IVF.

• Sydney explaining IVF to her daughter:

  • “She's like frozen in a tube in a big giant refrigerator. I'm so serious, you really weirdos.” (Sydney McDowell, 23:24)
  • “And then one day the doctor is going to get her out of the tube and he's going to put her in my belly.” (Sydney McDowell, 23:48)
    These are both touching and illustrative of how IVF impacts family conversations.

• “I felt so close, and then all of a sudden, I'm so far away again.”
  — Sydney McDowell (39:06), when realizing she must start as a new patient and the dream slips further out.

• “Sydney's embryos are safe, but there are still roughly 1200 others stored inside the now shuttered clinic...What’s going to happen to them?”
  — Melissa Jeltsen (43:39), highlighting the breadth of the crisis.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• The Fertility Bargain Metaphor & Setup: 02:37 – 06:13
• Sydney’s Backstory & Medical Crisis: 08:15 – 11:05
• Starting IVF at Center for Reproductive Health: 11:05 – 15:40
• Life During IVF: 17:53 – 19:06
• Clinic Atmosphere Changes & Sudden Closure: 26:20 – 31:07
• Moments of Shock and Immediate Aftermath: 31:07 – 32:48
• The Run for Embryos and Panic Calls: 36:02 – 37:59
• Securing Embryos, Realizing Isolation: 41:08 – 42:52
• End Reflection – What Comes Next: 43:39 – 44:31
• Preview of Season & Closing Montage: 44:31 – end

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Tone & Style

• Language: Direct, compassionate, often raw; a balance of journalistic detail and lived emotional experience.
• Atmosphere: Empathetic, intimate, at times urgent and panicked, with a strong sense of advocacy for vulnerable patients.

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Summary

In this powerful debut episode, "What Happened in Nashville" exposes the fragile yet costly bargain made by those seeking fertility treatment. Sydney McDowell’s journey personalizes the devastating domino effect of a clinic's collapse—from shattered routines and lost money to the existential threat facing embryos and dreams of parenthood. The episode not only tells Sydney’s story but shines a harsh light on an under-regulated fertility industry, setting up an immersive season that promises to probe how hope, money, and trust are gambled in America’s quest for family.

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Listen if you want:

• A first-hand look at the IVF process and its emotional highs and lows
• A gripping account of a health care disaster impacting real families
• An investigative lens on the vulnerabilities in assisted reproductive technology

Next episode preview:
The fallout worsens as more patients wake up to the reality of lost embryos, vanished medical care, and hard questions about who’s accountable when a fertility clinic collapses.

Transcript

[Melissa Jeltson]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Sydney McDowell]

Guaranteed Human.

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[Melissa Jeltson]

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[Sydney McDowell]

Shh. You won't believe what my new friend just told me about dinosaurs.

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[Melissa Jeltson]

There's a kind of fairy tale that I remember from growing up. You've probably heard a version of it. In the story, a woman longs for a child. She's a woodsman's wife or a queen desperate for an heir. No matter what she does, she can't conceive. And so she turns to the witch next door, the toad in the pond, the nymph with the silver tongue. Any mystical figure willing to make a deal. The woman sacrifice in return for a child. The bargain is made. The woman follows their orders, eats herbs from a secret garden, plants magic seeds deep in the earth. She offers pieces of her life, her soul, in exchange for a dream. The thing is, for anyone who's ever struggled with fertility, these ancient tales might sound eerily familiar. I have been this woman. Maybe you have, too. The difference is, today the bargain isn't made with a witch or a toad. It's with a doctor at a fertility clinic. One that you've chosen to trust with your future. IVF in vitro fertilization is a deal made out of necessity, and the price is steep. You swallow pills and inject drugs that change your body and your mind in unpredictable ways. You spend your life savings on tests and procedures and appointments. You embark on long, repetitive voyages back and forth to the clinic without knowing how long the journey will ultimately take or where you'll end up. All for the chance to hold a child in your arms. Which is why, when I heard about this story about what happened in Nashville, I couldn't look away.

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A Nashville fertility clinic abruptly shut down, putting patients and their embryos in limbo.

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We have some breaking news to tell you about. Tennessee's attorney general is suing a Nashville doctor.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Just shock and disbelief from former patients.

[Sydney McDowell]

Of the center for Reproductive Health.

[Melissa Jeltson]

A fertility clinic closed overnight without warning or explanation, leaving patients stranded and their embryos locked inside.

[Sydney McDowell]

This was our last chance.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Like the last of everything, the dream was over. As a reporter, I've spent much of my career documenting women's experiences with violence. You may have heard my earlier true crime podcasts. What happened to Sandy Beal? What happened to Libby Caswell? What happened to Talina Czar? Investigations into women failed by the people and systems meant to protect them. Those failures cost women their lives. This story is different. Here these women are fighting for their futures, for the chance to become parents. And yet they still find themselves left behind, abandoned and vulnerable. Not just by police and prosecutors, but by doctors, legislators, and the very business of fertility. The cost is different, but the betrayal cuts just as deep. It doesn't matter how much I fight. It doesn't matter how sad I get.

[Sydney McDowell]

It doesn't matter how much I cry over all of this.

[Melissa Jeltson]

It doesn't matter how much justice we get.

[Sydney McDowell]

None of it's going to get me pregnant.

[Melissa Jeltson]

This is a story about what happens when a clinic entrusted with people's most fragile hopes simply collapses, leaving them with questions, debt, and heartbreak.

[Sydney McDowell]

This is the case of cases, and.

[Melissa Jeltson]

They haven't even cracked the lid yet. It's also about what happens when an industry operates without real oversight.

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IVF today is far less regulated than virtually any comparable part of medical practice in the United States, and the secrets.

[Melissa Jeltson]

And scandals discovered behind the clinic walls.

[Sydney McDowell]

I was scared there wasn't proof that.

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I owned my embryos, that they were mine.

[Melissa Jeltson]

At its core, this story is about what it means to create a family in a precarious system that can take that chance away in an instant.

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You're not going into fertility treatment from any position of strength. It's a uniquely vulnerable kind of health care, creating new life. We're still not parents, by the way.

[Melissa Jeltson]

And the hope that still prevails despite the overwhelming setbacks. We're going to be moms one day. Foreign I'm Melissa Jeltson from School of Humans and iHeart podcasts. This is what happened in Nashville. Episode 1 collapse. The part that these fairy tales about fertility always skip through is what comes before the desperate visit to the witch or the fairy begging for a miracle. It can take months, years of dashed hopes and inexplicable losses to even realize you need help getting pregnant before your IVF story even begins. And for many people, it's not a path they imagined they'd ever need to take.

[Sydney McDowell]

I truly did not know what to expect walking into a fertility clinic. Anybody that's been there knows that it's scary just walking in there. You kind of feel helpless, you know, like my body's not doing what it needs to. So here I am.

[Melissa Jeltson]

This is Sydney McDowell. She's in her late 20s, with Honey Blonde hair and a naturally sunny disposition. She lives just outside Nashville, where she runs a small embroidery business from home stitching custom designs for strangers on etsy.

[Sydney McDowell]

I have two daughters. I had one when I was 19 and the other when I was 22. So I was really young. Young and dumb, as I'd say. But they saved my life and I raised them as a single mom until My oldest was 6 and my youngest was 3. And then I got married to my high school best friend and they Love him so much. We have the sweetest, splendid family, but we went so badly to just have a baby to kind of bring us all together.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Sydney and her husband Austin got married in 2023 and started trying for a baby soon after. A few months in it happened, Sydney saw a faint positive line on a pregnancy test. But at just seven weeks, she began having intense, painful cramps. At the time, Sydney was working at a local hospital as an ultrasound tech.

[Sydney McDowell]

It felt like I was giving birth and in the middle of my shift I collapsed because I couldn't stand up anymore. And that's when my ectopic just completely ruptured.

[Melissa Jeltson]

An ectopic pregnancy. A nightmare most women don't think about until it happens to them. Sydney's embryo had implanted in her fallopian tube instead of her uterus, which meant she needed emergency surgery at the very hospital where she worked. The operation saved her life, but the damage to her fallopian tube was was irreversible.

[Sydney McDowell]

My life changed that day pretty much.

[Melissa Jeltson]

At her follow up appointment, her surgeon gently delivered more difficult news. Looking in her remaining fallopian tube, she had found signs of endometriosis, a chronic condition where tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside it, often causing pain and fertility issues.

[Sydney McDowell]

I remember walking out of that appointment and I sat in my car and I just bawled. I was only 25 at the time. I didn't expect anything like this to happen.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Sydney's doctor suggested she speak with a reproductive endocrinologist, a dedicated fertility doctor who could give her a clearer picture of what her future might look like.

[Sydney McDowell]

She wanted me to receive the best care that I could get, so she sent me a referral to the center for Reproductive Health. Welcome, welcome to the center for Reproductive Health. You may be wondering what will your first visit be like. You'll find our staff to be highly personable and eager to assist you.

[Melissa Jeltson]

For your the center for Reproductive Health is a small family run fertility clinic in Nashville, Tennessee, tucked away on the fourth floor of a medical building. Easy to miss if you aren't looking for it. Inside, the waiting room is simply decorated with floral upholstered chairs circling a wooden coffee table. The space feels slightly dated but clean and warm. When Sydney and her husband walk in for their first appointment in early 2023, they don't know yet how much they'll come to associate that room with hope, anxiety and everything in between.

[Sydney McDowell]

Your nurse will obtain a complete medical history as well as check your vital signs. Then it's the time you've been looking forward to the most your time with Dr. Vasquez. He will perform a physical examination and then you'll sit down with him to review your case and review recommendations for next steps.

[Melissa Jeltson]

The clinic is run by Dr. Jaime Vazquez, a licensed board certified OB GYN. He's originally from Chile, where he also received his medical degree before completing his residency and fellowship in the U.S. his resume looks impressive. He had published, peer reviewed research, authored medical textbooks, and held faculty positions at Vanderbilt, Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison before eventually opening his own fertility clinic in Nashville.

[Sydney McDowell]

When you look around, you see all the other couples. And in that moment, I was just curious, like, what point of their journey are they in?

[Melissa Jeltson]

I wasn't in Sydney's waiting room at the center for Reproductive Health that day, but I have spent a lot of time in similar waiting rooms at other IVF clinics. And I can tell you that while none of our stories are identical, the big emotions that arise inside these rooms are pretty universal. It's a complicated mix of anxiety, fear and excitement with fertility. You're told from the get go that.

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Like, we really don't know a lot about it.

[Sydney McDowell]

It's all just kind of a shot in the dark. And you're like, all right, well, I guess I'll pay you to keep shooting.

[Melissa Jeltson]

We were, of course, as I was approaching 40, starting to feel the pressure a little bit more and trying to say, okay, what is the fastest route, to some degree, the cheapest route first. We started off pretty excited.

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We were like, they're going to offer more testing. They're going to research a little bit more than what I already have because right now we don't have anything. You know, right now we're considered unexplained infertility.

[Sydney McDowell]

They don't know why you're not conceiving. I have been married to my wife for seven years now, and we wanted.

[Melissa Jeltson]

To grow our family. And obviously we required assisted reproductive technology. We were just so hopeful. We looked into all the different fertility centers here in Nashville and landed on center for Reproductive Health. Sydney doesn't know the other women, the other couples who have passed through this waiting room before her, but she feels a connection with them. While their fertility journeys are individual, they're all entrusting the center for Reproductive Health with their futures. And for that reason, she feels a flicker of optimism, like she's in the right place.

[Sydney McDowell]

I was also hopeful still that, you know, it would just be, oh, a quick, easy fix. You know, we'll come here and do this, and we'll have a baby.

[Melissa Jeltson]

At Sydney's first appointment, Dr. Jaime Vazquez explains that he'd need to perform a laparoscopic surgery to examine her remaining fallopian tube, the one not damaged by her ectopic pregnancy. The surgery confirms severe endometriosis throughout her reproductive organs. He'd had to cauterize her remaining fallopian tube. If Sydney wants to get pregnant again, she will have to undergo in vitro fertilization.

[Sydney McDowell]

It was extremely hard to soak in. I feel like that took me probably six months to wrap my head around and be able to accept the reality of the situation.

[Melissa Jeltson]

IVF is a foreign concept to Sydney. She'd heard of it, of course, seen it dramatized on tv, mentioned in passing by acquaintances. But it had always belonged to someone else's story, not hers. Ivf, she soon learns, will not be an easy or quick fix. Instead, it will require months of injections, tests, appointments, and a mountain of hope. All of it is a gamble, a deal with a doctor she barely knows.

[Sydney McDowell]

I was extremely naive. IVF is one of those things that you don't truly understand the magnitude of it or what goes into it, unless it's your reality.

[Melissa Jeltson]

A quick primer trying to conceive the old fashioned way, hinges on timing and luck. After sexual intercourse, sperm must find the egg at exactly the right moment. And everything inside your body, from hormone levels to the condition of your reproductive organs, has to be just right for fertilization to happen. If you've ever seen look Who's Talking, the 1989 comedy starring John Travolta and Kirstie Alley, that opening scene where sperm raced to the egg as the Beach Boys I Get around plays. It's silly, but also pretty accurate. In ivf, there's no blind race, no sperm frantically trying to find the egg like a shot in the dark. Instead, patients take medication that stimulates the ovaries to produce multiple eggs, which doctors then retrieve in a procedure called an egg retrieval. Then the sperm is combined with the eggs directly in the lab. That's the in vitro part of ivf, Latin for in glass. Because eggs are fertilized and develop into embryos in a lab dish instead of inside the body. From there, embryos can be frozen for later or transferred into the uterus. Offering a more controlled approach, Sydney would soon find herself in a cycle of daily pills and injections in preparation for an egg retrieval.

[Sydney McDowell]

I remember just coming home with my large box of medicine and sitting it down on my bathroom counter. You see all the sharp containers you see all the needles, you see all the medicine that you're going to have to draw up yourself and do at home. And it was just the thought of, like, okay, like, am I going to be able to do this?

[Melissa Jeltson]

I had the same question Sydney had when I went through fertility treatments. IVF is unusual in that, as expensive, complex medical treatments go, it's surprisingly diy. To get ready for an egg retrieval, you need to take injectable drugs every day, sometimes twice a day, for about two weeks. Due to the frequency of the shots, it's too time consuming to travel into a clinic to receive them. So instead, patients are instructed to do their injections themselves at home. There's no nurse guiding you through each step. Just you, a pile of needles, a YouTube video, and the hope that you're doing it right. Beyond the pain of the shots, the side effects are not fun. You spend two weeks feeling swollen, bruised, and incredibly emotional.

[Sydney McDowell]

The medicine makes you want to lay in bed all day. When people say that IVF takes over your life, it does, in a sense, because that's what I had to do every single day. And I knew that if I didn't do that, then that would change the outcome of my future babies.

[Melissa Jeltson]

In February 2024, a few weeks after Sydney begins her daily injections, Dr. Vazquez performs her egg retrieval. He takes 25 eggs from her ovaries. In a lab just down the hall, an embryologist, someone trained in the science of reproduction, fertilizes the eggs with Sydney's husband's sperm. And then the couple waits for the next week. The embryologist watches closely to see which of their embryos will grow and which ones won't make it.

[Sydney McDowell]

So when they originally had told me that they harvested 25 eggs, like, I was like, oh, wow, like, this is a great number. You know, I didn't realize at the time, like, how few make it past each stage.

[Melissa Jeltson]

In the end, six embryos develop and are sent off for genetic testing. The test, called PGT A, isn't required, but it's commonly used. It screens for chromosomal abnormalities that could lead to miscarriage or failed implantation, helping patients avoid the heartbreak of transferring an embryo unlikely to thrive two weeks later.

[Sydney McDowell]

They called us and told us that we had three healthy embryos that had made it past the PGT testing, and they were all girls.

[Melissa Jeltson]

The next step is the embryo transfer, when Dr. Vasquez will place one of the embryos into Sydney's uterus. If all goes well, the embryo will implant, begin to grow, and eventually become a healthy pregnancy a baby.

[Sydney McDowell]

We had the date on our calendar. Like this is our transfer day. We were counting down the day, but it's kind of the light at the end of the tunnel because you know this is your chance. Like this is your chance that you can get pregnant.

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[Sydney McDowell]

Space hamster flew his hot air balloon all the way to the bottom of the ocean.

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[Sydney McDowell]

What color was the hamster's cape and.

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[Sydney McDowell]

Frozen ice. She's in a tube. What does Cruz have? She's like frozen in a tube in a big giant refrigerator. I'm so serious, you really weirdos.

[Melissa Jeltson]

That's Sydney explaining IVF to her young daughter. She posts the video of them talking.

[Sydney McDowell]

To TikTok and then one day the doctor is going to get her out of the tube and he's going to put her in my belly. Who's going to break the ice though? The doctor? Is it going to hurt the baby's hand? He's going to keep her safe.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Sydney shared some of her IVF process online as a way to feel less alone. And by March 2024, it feels like the finish line is near. Her embryo transfer is coming up.

[Sydney McDowell]

So when you're going through ivf, the transfer, that's the big part. It's like we've worked this hard. Anybody in their IVF journey, like the word transfer is just like they know what that word stands for.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Just like the egg retrieval. Getting ready for the embryo transfer involves taking specific drugs at specific times of the day for a few weeks and regular check ins at the clinic.

[Sydney McDowell]

It's basically doing everything so that your body is just 100% ready to get pregnant, keep a pregnancy. I was taking shots and I was wearing three or four patches a day on my stomach. I was so tired I didn't hardly get out of bed.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Embryo transfers aren't guaranteed. Success rates depend on the quality of the embryo and a range of other factors. But Sydney has a good shot and she's hopeful. On April 5, 2024, she goes to the center for Reproductive Health for a routine monitoring appointment. It's just two weeks from her embryo transfer and she arrives around 9:30am for her ultrasound and blood work. Today is a little special though, because her mom's with her.

[Sydney McDowell]

I was actually so excited. My mom lives in Kentucky, which is where Austin and I are originally from, so she's about a two and a half hour drive from me. So I don't get to see her as much as I'd love to. Since we were going to be in Nashville, we were just going to make a day of it. We were going to go get my levels checked and we plan to get lunch, go to the malls. Honestly, just have a girls day. I was really looking forward to it because you just enjoy that time with your mom. We were just talking the whole way up to the office, having a good time, got on the elevator hopeful. We were talking about how close my transfer actually was and like she was just giving me reassurance like, you know, you've came this far, it's going to go great.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Based on previous visits, Sydney knows how it's supposed to go. First, a phlebotomist will take her blood. Then a tech will perform a transvaginal ultrasound, looking inside her uterus to see if it's an ideal environment for an embryo. At this point, Sydney could go through the rigmarole in her sleep, Check in, pay the receptionist, sleeve up for lab work, undies down for ultrasound, and done. See you again soon. But when she walks into the clinic this time, the typical routine is off kilter. To start, the receptionist doesn't seem to want to charge her for the visit.

[Sydney McDowell]

I did pay out of pocket for all of my fertility costs because our insurance doesn't cover any of it. So I knew when I showed up that day that I owed them $275. That would cover my lab work and my ultrasound for the day. So when I walked in, I already had my debit card out. And she looked at me and just kind of looked back down, and she was like, actually, just wait a second. Let me go see and I'll see if you owe anything today. You know, just go have a seat and they'll come get you in a minute. My mom asked what just happened, and I said they didn't want my money. But I don't really understand. She said, they'll be out here. Maybe it's just a miscommunication.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Sydney and her mom Wait.

[Sydney McDowell]

I was getting antsy because I was hungry. I hadn't ate before I went, and I was kind of just. That's when it started feeling weird. Like, why is it taking so long again? I just kind of brushed it off to, they're busy. I've worked at a hospital before. I know how it's like to get behind, you know, it's okay. They're my fertility clinic. They're going to give me a baby. I'll be patient.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Something feels off, though. And it isn't just that day. The clinic had started to feel different. In the last few weeks, Sydney had started noticing small changes. The friendly nurses and assistants she'd come to know had quietly disappeared.

[Sydney McDowell]

When you go to a fertility clinic all the time, you become like family to these people. So there were multiple workers who had. We had added on Facebook because they were following me. I was following them. Well, I started to realize that they weren't working there anymore. Like the faces, the medical assistants and nurses, they were different.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Sydney had told herself it was normal. Clinics get busy, doctors retire, staff move on to new jobs. It didn't mean anything.

[Sydney McDowell]

I worked in a small hospital, so I was wondering if maybe he was getting bought out. I knew that he was older so in my head I was trying to rationalize it that he might be selling his practice to, you know, somebody else.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Still, today is taking a long time. Finally, a woman Sydney doesn't recognize comes out and calls her name.

[Sydney McDowell]

Sydney.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Sydney and her mom both follow the woman down the hall.

[Sydney McDowell]

I thought it would be be neat for my mom to see kind of what we go through because she's never dealt with infertility or anything. So this is all new to her too. And she kind of wants to be able to understand it more, to be there for me. I'm literally just excited. So I'm almost skipping down the hallway behind her, but then we don't even make it three rooms down the hallway. And she stops and she opens this old door. And when she opens it, it's like this dim lit office with a bunch of papers.

[Melissa Jeltson]

The room that the woman ushers Sydney and her mom into appears to be some sort of storage space with a desk in it.

[Sydney McDowell]

And I, like, looked at her because at this point I'm like, this is really weird. I've been going here for two years. I've never been in this office. She just tells me and my mom to sit down, and she then proceeds to grab a chair and pull it up in front of me and my mom and just sits there for a second and like, crosses her legs with her hand on her lap. And like, I could tell at that point that, like, she was anxious, that she, she was freaking out. And of course, in my mind I'm like, what in the world is. I couldn't, I didn't grasp what the possibilities could be. She's like, I don't know how to tell you this. Our clinic is closing. We'll be closing. We won't be here after today. I felt like I was on Punk'd for a second. Not going to lie. I literally feel my heart just dropping and I'm in tears. At this point, you have to keep in mind too. I'm two weeks away from a transfer, so my hormones were extremely high.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Sydney is spiraling, but she forces herself to concentrate on what the employee is saying about Dr. Vazquez and the clinic. The woman explains that the staff hasn't been paid and the clinic is apparently trying to come up with the money to keep operations going.

[Sydney McDowell]

She starts to go into detail that they had received an email from Elena Vasquez that morning, which is his daughter, stating that he did not have the funds to pay them and that they would not receive a paycheck for the previous two weeks, that they had already worked and that he also not only owes his employees now, but he owes the embryologist money. He never paid her for making our embryos. She had the worst look of fear on her face.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Sydney tries to make sense of it all, but the information is coming fast and it's overwhelming.

[Sydney McDowell]

I felt like at that moment, like everything in the past two years that I had been working so hard for, and I was so excited. Like, I felt in that moment that the carpet was just pulled completely out from underneath me. My mom finally looked up at her and said, so now what do we need to do? And so she said, if I was you, I would get everything I could out of this office today.

[Melissa Jeltson]

The woman goes on to tell Sydney that if she was in her shoes, her first priority would be to get her medical records as complete. Accurate records would be essential in transitioning to another fertility clinic. So Sydney rushes back to the front desk and starts filling out the paperwork.

[Sydney McDowell]

The girl at the front desk released my medical records right there.

[Melissa Jeltson]

And then Sydney's mother asks the big question, the million dollar question, the one that Sydney, in her state of shock, never thought to ask.

[Sydney McDowell]

My mom's like, well, what about your embryos?

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[Melissa Jeltson]

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[Sydney McDowell]

Then the space hamster flew his hot air balloon all the way to the bottom of the ocean.

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[Melissa Jeltson]

Room at the center for Reproductive Health, Sydney is struck by a new realization. She now has her medical records, which she'll absolutely need to have any chance of changing to a new clinic. But to perform an embryo transfer, you need an embryo.

[Sydney McDowell]

In that moment, I was so worried about the cycle. Like I didn't think for a second that this clinic is also the one that my embryos are being stored at. This clinic doesn't have an off site storage. These embryos are stored in their facility there.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Sydney's three embryos are inside a cryogenic tank at the clinic right now. They're submerged in liquid nitrogen stored at -321 degrees Fahrenheit. She can't just walk out with them.

[Sydney McDowell]

One of the girls that had been up front, she came back with the post it note and it said fertility couriers and it had a number on it. And she said, there's a guy named Ty. He is who we use at center for Reproductive Health to move our embryos. So he's familiar with us. You need to call him. And I'm like, okay, and say what? Like what am I supposed to say?

[Melissa Jeltson]

Sydney goes to her car and calls the courier Ty, explaining what she has just learned that the center for Reproductive Health is collapsing. And if she Wants access to her embryos. She needs to get them out asap.

[Sydney McDowell]

At first, I think he thought I was crazy. Honestly, he probably thought I was insane because I was like, please go get my embryos now. They're closing. And then he said his first answer was, so who's watching the tanks? And so that part hadn't even crossed my mind. And so then that hits me, that if his office staff walks out, who is watching the tanks?

[Melissa Jeltson]

The tanks that embryos are stored in don't run on autopilot. They need to be monitored regularly by trained staff. Temperatures must be checked and logged. Liquid nitrogen must be replenished. If the tanks are neglected, the embryos can be lost, and all the possibility that they carried gone. Ty tells Sydney he'll do whatever he can to get her embryos out.

[Sydney McDowell]

And then Ty says, so where are we taking them to? And I'm like, I don't know. I'm still in the parking lot in my car. And I said, I. I don't know where. And I'm like, well, where do you. Like, you know, do you have a suggestion? And he said, well, I actually know that Nashville Fertility Clinic is right down the road from where you're at right now. So I said, okay, let me see what I can do. At this point, my mom and I walk to Nashville Fertility Clinic from the center for Reproductive Health with my medical records, and I'm bawling.

[Melissa Jeltson]

With tears running down her face, Sydney explains her predicament to the Nashville Fertility Clinic. The employees seem as shocked as she is, but they quickly confirm they will store her embryos, and as soon as Ty the courier can physically get them to the clinic. Still, the front desk person needs her to understand Sydney won't be able to do her embryo transfer in two weeks as planned. In fact, it could take months before she can try again.

[Sydney McDowell]

And she said, now, let me tell you, we will be more than happy to take you as a patient, but we aren't going to just do your transfer. We are going to have to assign you to a doctor, and you're gonna have to go from there with what they want to do. So I kind of realized in that second, like, I'm starting over, essentially. So then I just started crying again because I was like. I felt so close, and then all of a sudden, I'm so far away again. I have my daughters to explain this to. I have my husband's family. Like, everybody's, like, ready for us to have this transfer. And now I don't even have a doctor.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Sydney and her mom go home and try to digest the turn of events. There will be no embryo transfer anytime soon. Sydney has to start again as a new patient at a different clinic. A baby is now even further out of reach. Over the weekend, Sydney keeps waiting for some kind of acknowledgment from the clinic that something is wrong, that what the employee told her was true, that staff hadn't been paid, that they were planning to stay home. But online, the center for Reproductive Health is presenting as business as usual.

[Sydney McDowell]

I am checking their website, you know, I'm like, okay, did I miss something? I look on their website and nothing's updated.

[Melissa Jeltson]

In fact, around the same time as Sydney's appointment, they post a cheerful message on Facebook congratulating an ultrasound tech on her three year work anniversary.

[Sydney McDowell]

So then at that point I was like, okay, maybe it's. Maybe I'm blowing this out of proportion. This is not actually happening. Like, nobody's actually talked to Dr. Vasquez. We don't even know if this is really going on.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Sydney wants to be wrong, she really does. But things aren't adding up. And so, unsure of what else to do, she posts about it on TikTok, hoping someone somewhere might know more.

[Sydney McDowell]

Okay, so I normally don't get on here and talk or anything because slightly awkward. And I have been sharing my IVF journey thus far at this point having a mental breakdown because I am approximately two and a half weeks from when I should be having a transfer. Just trying to stay positive because what else is there to do at this point? Hopefully my body reacts well to just cutting off these fertility medicines. I know it's not really healthy. That's kind of the update for now. No IVF right now. Working on a new doctor.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Sydney doesn't have a big following on TikTok, but suddenly her videos are getting attention. Other patients from the center for Reproductive Health start finding her. People who are just as confused and just as in the dark.

[Sydney McDowell]

I realized that people had appointments on Friday and they weren't told. They were seen. They were given blood work, they had ultrasounds done and they were sent home. They had no idea.

[Melissa Jeltson]

And something Ty the courier said when she first called him keeps running through her mind.

[Sydney McDowell]

He started, he said, well, this is a big deal. Like your embryos aren't the only ones there. What are they doing with the rest of them?

[Melissa Jeltson]

It is slowly dawning on Sydney that despite the terrible situation she's in, she's actually really lucky. It seems she may be the only patient who got this quiet tip off and the only one who got a head start at moving her embryos to a new clinic. But she still has to get them out over the weekend. She remains in constant contact with with Ty to coordinate the move.

[Sydney McDowell]

So he texted me that morning and said, you know, today's the day. This is the time we plan to pick them up. This is how long it takes to get there. I sat and stared at my phone for the entire two and a half hour window.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Ty arranges for an employee of the center for Reproductive Health to grant access to the closed clinic. The handoff goes as planned, and Sydney's embryos are whisked away in a mini freezer tank.

[Sydney McDowell]

And as soon as they were accepted to Nashville Fertility, he did text me and let me know, like, they've made it safely. I've, you know, they've arrived, Everything's good. That was the biggest relief for me, was just knowing that I got them out.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Despite wondering if her doubts and urgency were really necessary, Sydney is ultimately right. The clinic never opens again. Sydney's embryos are safe, but there are still roughly 1200 others stored inside the now shuttered clinic for the patients who own them, they will determine how many kids they have. If they have kids at all. Their future families hinge on those embryos. What's going to happen to them?

[Sydney McDowell]

At that point, it didn't occur to me what fight was going to come to follow.

[Melissa Jeltson]

This season on what happened in Nashville. Everything in IVF is a gambler.

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We took this gamble.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Then while the wand is inside of me, she goes, I, you think that's your ovary.

[Sydney McDowell]

Me and a couple others realized, this is bad. This is not normal. It was like, okay, like, there's no.

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Not going to be anybody left to.

[Sydney McDowell]

Hold this clinic up. Like, it's going to fall.

[Melissa Jeltson]

And I immediately was like, holy shit.

[Sydney McDowell]

Like, that is my.

[Melissa Jeltson]

My biggest fear confirmed now. So I just had zero trust that this was right.

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Like, you just feel disgusting, you feel violated, you feel manipulated. Like, all of the emotions, you know, at that point, you're deceived.

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We would just never accept this in other areas of medicine.

[Melissa Jeltson]

Unfortunately, people have figured out that this.

[Sydney McDowell]

Group of people are easy to take.

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Advantage of because we're desperate.

[Melissa Jeltson]

What happened in Nashville is a production of School of Humans and I Heart podcasts, written, reported and hosted by me, Melissa Jeltson. Our producer is Edelise Perez. Our senior producer is Emilia Brock, with additional production by Emily Siner and Carl Cadle. Theme song by Jessie Nye Swonger Sound design, scoring and mixing by Jeremy Thal and Jessie Nye Swonger Fact checking by Savannah Hughley and Austin Thompson. Our production manager is Daisy Church. Executive producers are Jason English, Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr and Elsie Crowley. If you're enjoying the show, tell everyone you know and don't forget to leave a rating in your favorite podcast app.

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[Sydney McDowell]

Then the space hamster flew his hot air balloon all the way to the to the bottom of the ocean.

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Nope.

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What color was the hamster's cape and.

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[Sydney McDowell]

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