UPDATE: Woman Testifies About Stress After Inaccurate Theranos Hormone Test
SAN JOSE (KPIX) -- New testimony in the fraud and conspiracy trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes Tuesday focused on the inaccuracy of the company's tests, specifically how one set of results were agonizing for an expectant mother.
A woman from Arizona testified that instead of finding out that she had a viable pregnancy, she was told that she was would likely miscarry for a fourth time because of incorrect Theranos test.
Brittany Gould got emotional as she told the jury about her experience in the
early weeks of her pregnancy.
Gould said she had three previous miscarriages and then was told that that her fourth pregnancy was not viable because of results from an erroneous Theranos hormone test.
She went on to give birth to a healthy baby.
Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO and founder of Theranos who is accused of defrauding investors and patients, sat motionless at the defense table during the key testimony.
"It's again adding more evidence to the allegation that Holmes was aware that the technology was not accurate; that the tests were not accurate," said Michele Hagan, a former prosecutor and Legal Analyst who is following the trial.
Earlier, a Phoenix area nurse practitioner named Audra Zachman told the jury she was at first interested in Theranos because the company promised to make blood testing easier, less expensive, more accessible and with faster turn-around times for her OB-GYN patients.
But Zachman told the jury that in Gould's case, the Theranos results were off by so much, she retested her using conventional blood tests from Quest, which indicated a healthy pregnancy.
Zachman called her experience "agonizing" and said she complained to Theranos in phone calls and emails. The company apologized, but by then she had lost faith in the company and stopped using them.
But on cross examination, Zachman told the jury that there were very few other suspicious or erroneous results during the time she used Theranos.
"It's helpful for the defense to show that maybe it's only a one percent failure rate or a 5% failure rate and that this pregnancy test was only one test out of a thousand that was inaccurate," Hagan said.
The trial resumes in San Jose federal court on Wednesday.
