Dr. Houser Interviewed on KXAN

Newscaster: The Austin victim of an unsolved crime is now at the center of attention. He died on Sunday, but now his mother wants his sperm extracted.

Newscaster: Marissa Evans hopes to someday have grandchildren and hopes a pending procedure will keep those hopes alive. Her son Nikolas Evans was beaten on 6th Street nearly two weeks ago. He died from his injuries over the weekend. KXAN and Shannon Powell has been following the story and brings us the latest.

Marissa Evans: My son wanted children and I want to keep his legacy alive.
Female news reader: Marissa Evans has done something most parents would never think of doing. She got a court order to have her son Nikolas Evan's sperm extracted, even though he's been dead for three days.

Marissa Evans: I feel hopeful for the first time since he passed away that I have something to look forward to and that um.. even though he's gone, maybe we can... I can have a grand baby.
Female news reader: Her decision and the court order is raising eyebrows. It is also unprecedented in the medical field.

Dr. Elizabeth Houser: Procurement of sperm from live donors is not unusual. That's right for..for in-vitro fertilization. The procurement of sperm from a deceased person is unusual.

Newscaster: Dr. Elizabeth Houser has been performing sperm extractions for 16 years. She is said to perform the procedure on Nikolas Evans.

Dr. Elizabeth Houser: No one is sure how long the sperm are viable after death. I saw a..uh found a new York Times article published in 1999 about a live birth from a donor who had been dead for 30 hours.
Female news reader: The twenty one year old has been organ dead for nearly forty eight hours. And even though he has been kept at a certain temperature, Dr. Houser says this might not work.

Dr. Elizabeth Houser: I think it's highly unlikely and the mother's aware of this, that it's highly unlikely that we are going to find viable sperm.

Newscaster: Despite the odds, Evans' mom says she has a good feeling about the process.

Marissa Evans: There's going to be lots of hurdles, but these two hurdles that we passed yesterday and today were really huge.

Newscaster: Now Dr. Houser just got to work this afternoon and she is actually heading to Brackenridge as we speak to perform the procedure. She says it will take about an hour to perform the extraction. The results will come soon after. Shannon Powell, KXAN, Austin News.

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Tags:

• The Urology Team
• Dr. Richard Chopp
• Dr. Stephen Hardeman
• Dr. Randy Fagin
• Dr. Melody Denson
• Dr. Elizabeth Houser
• Dr. Elizabeth Rutledge
• Dr. Lester Wang
• Dr. Bryan Kansas
• Dr. Eric Giesler
• Austin
• vasectomy
• prostate cancer
• HIFU