CNA published an article on a lapse in the Cordlife storage procedure which caused some of the cord blood to be no longer usable. The tank should have maintained a temperature of -150 degrees celsius but became 0 degrees and caused some of the cord blood to thaw and become damaged and unusable. This was discovered by the Ministry of Health (MOH) surprised audit.
As a parent, this is totally unforgivable. Cordlife only have 1 job and they only have 22 tanks to check the temperature.
They only need to check the temperature for only 22 tank?
Cordlife is by no means a small company. They even have “22 years” of history with many audits, awards and recognition in place. Those tank should have equipped with sensors to detect irregularity in temperature and someone should have done routine checks on the temperature of the item. Someone should have check the temperature at the point of depositing the cord blood?
This seemed so unlikely to happen from a technical perspective but it still happened.
Aftermatch
Reading the post from the Facebook group, here are some of the things that are happening.
1) 1 of the 7 affected tanks are confirmed to be unusable. Cordlife will continue to store the damaged cord blood in the tank in the hope that future technology will enable the use of this. Cordlife will waive future charges for this group of people. It is unsure whether they will refund those who paid up front.
Screenshot from Facebook chat
2) the remaining 6 affected tanks still need Cordlife to check on the extent of damage. (who knows whether we can believe their words)
Additional Points
1) The CEO resigned in Oct 2023 and is currently serving notice until March 2024. Not sure if it is related.
2) Cordlife has not mentioned anything about compensation. By right they should compensate $50k for each damaged cord blood. But they are stating the first portion of the contract that states that they will do their best to search for a matching cord blood. However, during their sales pitch, they do advocate how cord blood from the same family is the best. So I am not sure how they can get a matching cord blood.
Screen capture of the contract/agreement
3) Their business in Singapore is probably as good as gone. They can probably prepare to close down the company in Singapore. Will this relieve them of the obligation in the previous point?
The most important thing now is hoping Cordlife saved enough money to survive through this crisis and find new ways to generate profit. If not nobody will be storing the cord blood ( whether damaged or not damaged).
It will also be good to contact cordlife to check on the status of your cord blood to make see if it is affected. They are, at least, still responding.
Life is Sinple 