This bolded part is simply not true. Sure, a few desert females have been said to have died from being egg bound, but the vast majority of the accounts I've seen or heard of ended up with the female slugging out and being just fine afterwards.
This is how rumors and gossip spread. I tell my 12 year old son "don't state something as fact unless you have proof to back it up." That advice works well here too.
For what it's worth, I spoke with Family early on Saturday at Daytona and while they didn't come out and say it, I got the impression that they did, in fact, hatch some deserts in this clutch. They mentioned that they changed up their husbandry a bit and that might have been a contributing factor. He also mentioned that the female in question was 9 years old, which might also have been a contributing factor. I'm willing to keep an open mind about it, but regardless of the outcome, the desert project has already, IMO, taken a fatal blow.