A former patient, Hagar Izak Levi, has filed a civil lawsuit seeking up to 2.5 million shekels from IVF specialist Prof. Yaakov Labron, alleging medical negligence and severe emotional harm tied to the so-called Georgia egg import affair. The suit was submitted to the Rishon LeZion Magistrate’s Court. Levi told N12, “I do not wish for any woman to go through what I went through.”
Labron previously admitted in a plea deal that he operated an unlicensed laboratory and unlawfully handled embryos. He was also linked, along with Dr. David Bider and Dr. Pavel Tsitsikson, to a case in which eggs were imported from Georgia in a manner that violated Health Ministry rules. In the criminal case, Labron received an order to pay Levi 55,000 shekels, but she is now seeking far greater damages for the medical and psychological harm she says she suffered.
According to the complaint, Labron returned fertilized eggs to Levi’s uterus even after the Health Ministry had revoked approval for importing eggs from the Georgian clinic used by the doctors, and she says she was not told. Levi was 41 when she turned to Labron, already mother to two children, hoping to expand her family. She says she went through two years of intense treatment, repeated expectations, and expensive procedures that ended in failure.
The lawsuit, filed through attorney Adi Weiss with a medical opinion attached, says improper storage at Labron’s clinic likely damaged the embryos and caused the repeated treatment failures. It also alleges that the clinic offered sex selection for an extra 2,000 euros, which is illegal in Israel, and charged thousands of shekels for embryo storage at a hospital even though the embryos were never transferred there. Weiss called the conduct “extremely outrageous” and said the embryos were “their children in practice.” She also noted the lab was not licensed to hold embryos. The Health Ministry said the end of the criminal process does not prevent disciplinary action under the Physicians Ordinance, and it invited affected patients to file complaints.
