A couple from Hopewell Junction, New York is suing a Norwalk fertility clinic and their doctor after the couple's stored frozen embryos were apparently mistakenly destroyed.

Nicole Couture-Gallagher and her husband, Dan Gallagher, filed the 50-page complaint this week against Illume Fertility and Dr. Mark Leondires, the medical director and founder of the clinic, which has multiple locations in Connecticut and one in New York.

“We placed our trust in Illume Fertility to care for our future family, and that trust was betrayed,” Couture-Gallagher said during a virtual news conference.

According to the lawsuit, the couple had dreams of a large family, since each of them had a parent with 13 siblings.

When it didn't happen naturally, they sought help in 2010 from Dr. Mark Leondires at the Illume Fertility location in Norwalk.

Couture-Gallager said they froze 11 viable embryos, and over time, implanted eight.

They had triplets and later, a fourth child naturally by surprise. Though their hands were full with four kids, “when the time was right, they wanted a larger family, like the large and loving families that raised each of them,” the complaint stated.

For years, the couple believed that was possible, since they continued to pay Illume to store their final three frozen embryos.

“We thought of every one of those embryos as future children—precious and irreplaceable,” Couture-Gallagher told reporters.

That changed this past March when Leondires called them to say the embryos had been accidentally thrown out after Couture-Gallagher’s name was confused with another patient's back in 2019.

“Even though my name is highly uncommon being hyphenated,” Couture-Gallagher said.

“The clinic failed to inform the couple for five whole years, which essentially cut off any chances of running a new cycle and creating new embryos,” said attorney Tracey Cowen, of Clarkson Law Firm, who represents the couple. “Rather than apologize and take responsibility, Dr. Mark Leondires told them their loss was meaningless.”

“Dr. Leondires dismissed our heartbreak, telling us we probably wouldn't have even used our embryos anyway—a completely false statement and most importantly, a decision that wasn't his to make,” Couture-Gallagher told reporters.

The lawsuit claims Leondires downplayed the mistake and told the couple they “should be grateful for the children they were already able to have.”

“We never imagined our embryos, our future children, could be so carelessly discarded. And then for five years to go by without knowing what happened is incredibly frustrating. Most of all, we feel deeply violated. We were stripped of a choice that was solely ours to make,” Gallagher said at the news conference.

According to the lawsuit, Couture-Gallagher is 45, now past the age to restart the IVF process, and Gallagher had a vasectomy years ago, since “they believed their path to future children was secure in their frozen embryos.”

The couple said they’re suing to try and prevent anyone else from going through this nightmare.

“There are few relationships that involve as much trust as between a couple and their fertility doctor. They're working together to bring children into the world. Here, that trust was misplaced and betrayed. And for that, Illume and Dr. Leondires must be held accountable,” Cowan said.

The complaint includes 10 counts of alleged wrong doing including gross negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and breach of contract. The couple is seeking a jury trial and “damages in excess of $15,000 and equitable relief,” according to complaint.

Attorney Eric Stockman who represents Illume and Leondires released a statement, saying “Illume Fertility cannot comment on pending litigation, but we firmly trust that we will be vindicated through the legal process. Illume Fertility stands behind our providers and is committed to providing world-class patient-centric care.”