Latest news with #Galea
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘It felt like a business': Patients unsettled over IVF bungles and an industry that controls itself
A spokesperson for Melbourne IVF and IVF Australia said they were aware of the matters and take them seriously but could not comment on individual cases due to confidentiality. The organisations said they always looked for opportunities for improvement and take learnings from feedback seriously, incorporating them into its systems and internal processes. Monash IVF has apologised over its two embryo bungles and launched a review to be overseen by Fiona McLeod, SC. Galea, named Victoria's Mother of the Year 2024 for more than 10 years' support of single mothers who use IVF, is a strong advocate of the technology for all the good it brings. But she agrees with campaigners such as Katherine Dawson and Anastasia Gunn who argue that that fragmented regulation must be rectified and independent oversight established. Dawson learned that due to poor sperm-donor vetting, she may have 700 half-siblings, while Gunn, with her partner, paid to have three children via IVF with the same sperm donor, but the wrong sperm was used for one. More than 300,000 Australians have been born through IVF, around 20,000 babies a year, per the 10-year Fertility Roadmap published last year by former health minister Greg Hunt and Dr Rachel Swift. Now, parents in Galea's forums, including the new not-for-profit, Assisted Reproductive Technology Families Australia, are discussing whether to verify children's heritage through DNA testing (she cautions against it). Galea is among advocates, researchers and specialists who believe there is a long-overdue need for uniform, national IVF laws. This is on the table as part of a rapid review announced after federal Health Minister Mark Butler met with his state counterparts on Friday. The IVF industry is governed by more than 40 pieces of legislation in nine jurisdictions, and its codes are effectively self-regulated via the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand's Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee (RTAC). One of the six-member committee which licenses clinics and audits adherence to codes, Dr Richard Henshaw, is also a Monash IVF board member. The seventh RTAC position, Consumer Representative, is vacant. Consumer confidence was not enhanced by RTAC's refusal to release individual clinic audit results in its 2023-24 annual report which found 172 Australian breaches of codes of practice, including an increase in breaches of identification and traceability, 'an area of concern'. Despite the high-profile problems, IVF in Australia is as safe as ever, said long-time University of Adelaide research leader and professor for reproductive and periconceptual medicine, Robert Norman. 'But trust is now the issue,' he said. Loading In the early days, 'there was continual mixing and talking and a great deal of trust: mistakes were made but identified and rectified very early, risk factors were managed because embryologists and doctors all got on well', said Norman. 'Now you've got corporate bodies whose primary loyalty is to the shareholders and making profits.' The workload expected of embryologists, who have been blamed for the 'human error' behind the mix-ups, is sometimes excessive, he said. 'They are being lambasted, being labelled incompetent – I have the greatest sympathy for them because embryologists are being put under enormous pressure by the companies,' he said. 'Some days they've got far more work than they should be doing.' Norman said industry governance 'needs to be radically changed' and focused on independent oversight, not shareholders or industry employees. 'And it needs to have a lot of teeth,' he said. It got to the point where I started to feel like this was just a commercial business. Alice Almeida, IVF patient and founder of the fertility support group The Amber Network Sydney woman, Alice Almeida, started her own infertility support group after finding herself feeling 'isolated, ill-informed, disconnected and depressed' by IVF treatment in a system she did not believe offered adequate mental health support. An initial specialist who described the mental health issues and marital stress she raised as 'mumbo-jumbo' left Almeida questioning the quality of care: 'You are not explained [to about] all the things that could possibly go wrong,' she said. 'You are also not counselled about the financial implications; it got to the point where I started to feel like this was just a commercial business,' said Almeida. 'I was forking out more for tests I didn't know what they were for, there was no understanding of the financial burden.' Since founding her support group, The Amber Network, she has heard heartbreaking stories about people spending their house deposit on treatments. Loading She wants any new laws to include more provision for counselling, more accountability about success rates and better communication about the cost-benefit of tests or add-ons. Former IVF lab embryologist in Melbourne, Lucy Lines, reiterated Norman's point that the people handling eggs and sperm, lab scientists, are often 'overworked and under-rested'. Lines, now a fertility educator and IVF client advocate, attended the two-day Scientists in Reproductive Medicine meeting in Sydney in May, and said a presentation was made on the ideal formula for staffing levels in IVF labs to handle workloads smoothly. But it did not match operating reality. Lines said colleagues still at the coalface are overworked, under-appreciated, under-rested and underpaid. 'It doesn't surprise me that there are mistakes happening,' she said, adding that the level of anxiety in patient forums is 'very high'. Her direct messages are 'filled with people wondering if they should have their baby DNA-tested, if they should cancel their cycle tomorrow ... one girl messaged me saying 'I'm on my way home from my embryo transfer at Monash IVF, what the hell?' 'It does rock people's faith in what has previously been a very trusted system.' 'I have spent the last 25 years reassuring people this could never happen and explaining why it could never happen in Australia.' Lucy Lines, former IVF lab embryologist Alex Polyakov, associate clinical professor in medicine and health sciences at Melbourne University and medical director at Genea Fertility, disputes claims that embryologists are at times heavily overloaded and believes the latest bungles were 'devastating' but not a systemic issue. 'I do feel it's a black swan. It's something that is so rare, and so unpredictable: it really isn't a systemic issue,' he said. 'It looks to me that there must have been breaches of protocol. If the protocols that are in place were followed, this shouldn't have happened.' But he acknowledged concern being expressed by patients is understandable. 'If you look at the numbers of embryo transfers per year [there were more than 111,000 IVF cycles performed in Australia in 2023] and how long it's been since one of these incidents, it's so exceedingly rare it's probably one in a million.' Polyakov likens such events to air crashes and said, 'it's tragic when it happens, but we don't think twice about getting on a plane'. He said the industry would benefit, however, from a national regulatory system. 'At the moment, I would not get the information as to what actually transpired, and what improvements or checks should be done,' Polyakov said. 'Clearly that should be happening so we have an idea of what are the points of weakness and how to address them.' Private equity investment in IVF had increased funding for new science, Polyakov said, but doctors were not told how to practise medicine to benefit the business: 'I have never been told that your allegiance should be to the owners,' he said. Loading 'They've never said you should do clinical medicine this way because it makes more money.' Nonetheless, Rebecca Kerner, chair of the Australian and New Zealand Infertility Counsellors Association (ANZICA), confirmed Galea and Lines' belief that patients are unsettled. 'People are scared and understandably anxious; when you undergo any form of fertility treatment it's a daunting prospect … of course, trust is everything in this space, and people are unnerved,' she said. 'It's important to note there are great clinics out there doing excellent work, and relatively speaking … Australia still remains a very safe place to do fertility treatment. But when things like this emerge we must have rigorous investigations and really attend to it.' Dr Sarah Lensen, research fellow with Melbourne University's Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, reassures patients the local industry is 'at the top of the world'. But she said information on clinic websites is often 'inaccurate not based on evidence, misleading, overselling potential benefits, not mentioning costs or benefits'. Lensen launched The Evidence-based IVF website through the university in April, to try and counter what she said is the widespread use of unproven IVF add-ons to emotionally vulnerable patients. She added her voice to the chorus wanting independent IVF regulation: 'So families can be reassured that if something goes wrong, it's going to be rectified, and it's not going to turn into a commercial issue: it will be dealt with the compassion it deserves.'
The Age
3 days ago
- Health
- The Age
‘It felt like a business': Patients unsettled over IVF bungles and an industry that controls itself
A spokesperson for Melbourne IVF and IVF Australia said they were aware of the matters and take them seriously but could not comment on individual cases due to confidentiality. The organisations said they always looked for opportunities for improvement and take learnings from feedback seriously, incorporating them into its systems and internal processes. Monash IVF has apologised over its two embryo bungles and launched a review to be overseen by Fiona McLeod, SC. Galea, named Victoria's Mother of the Year 2024 for more than 10 years' support of single mothers who use IVF, is a strong advocate of the technology for all the good it brings. But she agrees with campaigners such as Katherine Dawson and Anastasia Gunn who argue that that fragmented regulation must be rectified and independent oversight established. Dawson learned that due to poor sperm-donor vetting, she may have 700 half-siblings, while Gunn, with her partner, paid to have three children via IVF with the same sperm donor, but the wrong sperm was used for one. More than 300,000 Australians have been born through IVF, around 20,000 babies a year, per the 10-year Fertility Roadmap published last year by former health minister Greg Hunt and Dr Rachel Swift. Now, parents in Galea's forums, including the new not-for-profit, Assisted Reproductive Technology Families Australia, are discussing whether to verify children's heritage through DNA testing (she cautions against it). Galea is among advocates, researchers and specialists who believe there is a long-overdue need for uniform, national IVF laws. This is on the table as part of a rapid review announced after federal Health Minister Mark Butler met with his state counterparts on Friday. The IVF industry is governed by more than 40 pieces of legislation in nine jurisdictions, and its codes are effectively self-regulated via the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand's Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee (RTAC). One of the six-member committee which licenses clinics and audits adherence to codes, Dr Richard Henshaw, is also a Monash IVF board member. The seventh RTAC position, Consumer Representative, is vacant. Consumer confidence was not enhanced by RTAC's refusal to release individual clinic audit results in its 2023-24 annual report which found 172 Australian breaches of codes of practice, including an increase in breaches of identification and traceability, 'an area of concern'. Despite the high-profile problems, IVF in Australia is as safe as ever, said long-time University of Adelaide research leader and professor for reproductive and periconceptual medicine, Robert Norman. 'But trust is now the issue,' he said. Loading In the early days, 'there was continual mixing and talking and a great deal of trust: mistakes were made but identified and rectified very early, risk factors were managed because embryologists and doctors all got on well', said Norman. 'Now you've got corporate bodies whose primary loyalty is to the shareholders and making profits.' The workload expected of embryologists, who have been blamed for the 'human error' behind the mix-ups, is sometimes excessive, he said. 'They are being lambasted, being labelled incompetent – I have the greatest sympathy for them because embryologists are being put under enormous pressure by the companies,' he said. 'Some days they've got far more work than they should be doing.' Norman said industry governance 'needs to be radically changed' and focused on independent oversight, not shareholders or industry employees. 'And it needs to have a lot of teeth,' he said. It got to the point where I started to feel like this was just a commercial business. Alice Almeida, IVF patient and founder of the fertility support group The Amber Network Sydney woman, Alice Almeida, started her own infertility support group after finding herself feeling 'isolated, ill-informed, disconnected and depressed' by IVF treatment in a system she did not believe offered adequate mental health support. An initial specialist who described the mental health issues and marital stress she raised as 'mumbo-jumbo' left Almeida questioning the quality of care: 'You are not explained [to about] all the things that could possibly go wrong,' she said. 'You are also not counselled about the financial implications; it got to the point where I started to feel like this was just a commercial business,' said Almeida. 'I was forking out more for tests I didn't know what they were for, there was no understanding of the financial burden.' Since founding her support group, The Amber Network, she has heard heartbreaking stories about people spending their house deposit on treatments. Loading She wants any new laws to include more provision for counselling, more accountability about success rates and better communication about the cost-benefit of tests or add-ons. Former IVF lab embryologist in Melbourne, Lucy Lines, reiterated Norman's point that the people handling eggs and sperm, lab scientists, are often 'overworked and under-rested'. Lines, now a fertility educator and IVF client advocate, attended the two-day Scientists in Reproductive Medicine meeting in Sydney in May, and said a presentation was made on the ideal formula for staffing levels in IVF labs to handle workloads smoothly. But it did not match operating reality. Lines said colleagues still at the coalface are overworked, under-appreciated, under-rested and underpaid. 'It doesn't surprise me that there are mistakes happening,' she said, adding that the level of anxiety in patient forums is 'very high'. Her direct messages are 'filled with people wondering if they should have their baby DNA-tested, if they should cancel their cycle tomorrow ... one girl messaged me saying 'I'm on my way home from my embryo transfer at Monash IVF, what the hell?' 'It does rock people's faith in what has previously been a very trusted system.' 'I have spent the last 25 years reassuring people this could never happen and explaining why it could never happen in Australia.' Lucy Lines, former IVF lab embryologist Alex Polyakov, associate clinical professor in medicine and health sciences at Melbourne University and medical director at Genea Fertility, disputes claims that embryologists are at times heavily overloaded and believes the latest bungles were 'devastating' but not a systemic issue. 'I do feel it's a black swan. It's something that is so rare, and so unpredictable: it really isn't a systemic issue,' he said. 'It looks to me that there must have been breaches of protocol. If the protocols that are in place were followed, this shouldn't have happened.' But he acknowledged concern being expressed by patients is understandable. 'If you look at the numbers of embryo transfers per year [there were more than 111,000 IVF cycles performed in Australia in 2023] and how long it's been since one of these incidents, it's so exceedingly rare it's probably one in a million.' Polyakov likens such events to air crashes and said, 'it's tragic when it happens, but we don't think twice about getting on a plane'. He said the industry would benefit, however, from a national regulatory system. 'At the moment, I would not get the information as to what actually transpired, and what improvements or checks should be done,' Polyakov said. 'Clearly that should be happening so we have an idea of what are the points of weakness and how to address them.' Private equity investment in IVF had increased funding for new science, Polyakov said, but doctors were not told how to practise medicine to benefit the business: 'I have never been told that your allegiance should be to the owners,' he said. Loading 'They've never said you should do clinical medicine this way because it makes more money.' Nonetheless, Rebecca Kerner, chair of the Australian and New Zealand Infertility Counsellors Association (ANZICA), confirmed Galea and Lines' belief that patients are unsettled. 'People are scared and understandably anxious; when you undergo any form of fertility treatment it's a daunting prospect … of course, trust is everything in this space, and people are unnerved,' she said. 'It's important to note there are great clinics out there doing excellent work, and relatively speaking … Australia still remains a very safe place to do fertility treatment. But when things like this emerge we must have rigorous investigations and really attend to it.' Dr Sarah Lensen, research fellow with Melbourne University's Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, reassures patients the local industry is 'at the top of the world'. But she said information on clinic websites is often 'inaccurate not based on evidence, misleading, overselling potential benefits, not mentioning costs or benefits'. Lensen launched The Evidence-based IVF website through the university in April, to try and counter what she said is the widespread use of unproven IVF add-ons to emotionally vulnerable patients. She added her voice to the chorus wanting independent IVF regulation: 'So families can be reassured that if something goes wrong, it's going to be rectified, and it's not going to turn into a commercial issue: it will be dealt with the compassion it deserves.'
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
The miracle of seat 11A ... how did British passenger survive?
When Vishwash Kumar Ramesh reached his seat on Air India Flight 171, setting off from Ahmedabad to London, he may have been pleased about his window seat and extra leg room. Mr Ramesh was returning to his family home in Leicester after tending to his business in India and his ticket for seat 11A put him in the perennially enviable position of being next to a window, with enough space to stretch his legs. A member of the cabin crew would have sat opposite, facing him, during take-off. But this seat is not merely advantageous from a comfort perspective for a nine and a half hour flight, but also could have been pivotal in saving his life. Just after the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner fell to Earth into a built-up area less than a minute after take-off, the estimated 60 tons of fuel went up in a plume of flame. Credit: Social media His brother Nayan Kumar Ramesh told Sky News he video-called their father moments after the crash to say: 'I don't know how I'm alive.' Aviation experts in the business of assessing crashes consider this a 'non-survivable crash'. 'As far as this accident is concerned, I think it's miraculous that anyone survived because I think technically this crash is probably a non-survivable crash,' Prof Edwin Galea, director of the Fire Safety Engineering Group (FSEG) at the University of Greenwich, told The Telegraph. 'We still don't know enough about it, but a fully fuelled aircraft crashing into a built-up area, it's probably unlikely that we would expect to see any survivors from this. 'This is probably an unsurvivable crash a) because it's in a built-up area and b) because the damage to the fuselage would have been so severe. Plus the huge post-crash fire would make it unlikely. The fact that one person has survived, I think, is miraculous.' Prof Galea published a study in 2006 which found in survivable crashes people within five rows of an exit row were more likely to survive. Anyone sitting further than this from an emergency door was more likely to die than to live, should they survive the initial injuries of impact. There is, he says, no one seat on a plane in which to sit to ensure maximum safety. It is often said the rear of a plane is safer, for example, but the benefits of any one seat or another are so dependent on the nature of a crash, that this cannot hold as a rule of thumb. 'If you believe what they've said in the media, the survivor's seat is 11A and on the 787-8, that's right by the number two exit,' Prof Galea said. 'So he's got the seat as close as you could possibly be to an emergency exit. You can't be any closer. 'It's right on his side and he's actually in the A seat, which is the window seat. You could reach up and touch the door, you're that close to it.' The rear-facing seat of the cabin crew placed almost directly in front of Mr Ramesh is actually the safest seat in a plane, said the aviation safety expert, as it is more robust and has a full harness to limit excessive movement. These members of staff are trained to evacuate the full plane in 90 seconds as their primary job, with drinks and hospitality a supplementary skill. 'They operate the door, usually. So the way he would have evacuated is either going to be that the crew member managed to get the door open, and maybe they then died, or perhaps the passenger got the door open himself,' Prof Galea said. 'Or he didn't go out through a door. The fuselage might have been disrupted at that point and he just got out through a break in the fuselage.' But the 787-8 Dreamliner has eight exits, all attended with at least one member of the cabin crew. The other advantage of seat 11A is that it falls within the sturdy 'wing box' of a plane, which is its strongest area. 'The physically strongest part of the aircraft is the part of the fuselage where the wings are, called the wing box. It's where the wings joined to the fuselage. That's the strongest part of the aircraft because there's the most structure there,' Prof Galea added. 'And I believe seat 11A is just at the front of that very strong part of the aircraft. That may have been a factor again.' Prof John McDermid, Lloyd's Register chairman of safety at University of York, also said the choice of seat could have been vital as it is an over-wing seat which offers greater structural strength. 'Also, being by an exit door means you can get out quickly, which greatly increases the chance of survival when there is a fire,' he told The Telegraph. But, while Mr Ramesh had all of these factors going in his favour, perhaps the biggest is the advantage of luck. 'He also had a lot of good fortune,' Prof Galea said. 'Because why did he survive and 11B sitting right next to him didn't, or 11C or 12A? 'If he was not injured to the point where he couldn't self-evacuate then that is fairly miraculous, given the nature of this crash. I'm kind of staggered that anyone survived, let alone was in good enough shape to self-evacuate.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
The Age
27-05-2025
- Business
- The Age
Couple pays $1.22 million for inner west home after bidding war
Galea said the auction went 'well above expectations,' largely due to investors driving the price up. He would not disclose the reserve, but he said the sale price was 'some $200,000 above' it. 'Never in our wildest dreams we would have thought $1.221 million – we haven't seen investors spur along the market for some time here in Melbourne,' he said. The vendor was selling the investment property in addition to a hobby farm to free up equity for a bigger family home, Galea said. Across town in St Kilda East, a renovated, three-bedroom Victorian at 11 King Street passed in at auction. Bidding stopped at $1.69 million, but was sold in post-auction negotiations at $1.72 million. It was listed with a price guide of $1,600,000 to $1,700,000. Buxton Port Phillip agent David Seeber said the buyer, a professional athlete in her late 20s, was 'looking for something fully renovated for herself'. There was one underbidder, a young couple relocating from interstate. Seeber would not disclose the reserve, but said the sale price was just shy of it. This week's interest rate cut has 'spurred a lot more inquiries from people who are starting the process of researching,' he said. In nearby South Yarra, a professional woman in her 30s forked out $1.875 million for a single-storey Georgian home after it passed in at auction. The home at 27 Phoenix Street features three bedrooms, ornate fireplaces, a luxurious bathroom and a small backyard. Woodards South Yarra agent Cate Vesely listed the deceased estate for sale with a quoted price range of $1.7 million to $1.9 million. The reserve price was $1.85 million. The auction began with a vendor bid of $1.7 million, followed by a single bid of $1.725 million before passing in. Vesely said the buyer was the only registered bidder, and that she had fallen in love with the home 'the moment she saw it'. 'She's a young professional who just moved over from New Zealand and was looking to buy a place and live in it. She just fell in love with this one and has been with us from the start of the four-week campaign.' The underbidders were an older couple looking to upsize from their current large apartment, also in South Yarra, to a home in the area. In Footscray, four bidders fought over a rundown three-bedroom home at 39 Stafford Street that had stood vacant for years. Ray White Sunshine agent and auctioneer Marcus Fregonese listed the house for sale with a quoted price range of $600,000 to $660,000. The reserve price was $660,000. Fregonese said the winning bid, at $720,000, was offered by 'a young, local guy in the building game' who was looking to renovate it for his first home. The underbidders were young couples looking to knock it down. Loading The home's owners, an elderly couple who had once lived in the house but long since moved to the east of Melbourne, did not have 'the energy to renovate it', Fregonese said. After a starting bid of $600,000, the four traded bids of $10,000 increments until $680,000, after which they slowed to $5,000. 'It's unlivable and dilapidated, and actually had squatters in there. The guy who bought it is planning a full renovation,' Fregonese said.
