‘Have We Become Too Careless?’: Alleged IVF Mix-Up Highlights Role Human Error Can Play In Medicine
A couple is suing a fertility clinic after the woman gave birth to twins who appear to be from different parents. "It's this agonizing process to grow embryos. And it involves almost over 200 different steps and when you assume this happens to thousands of patients every year within that laboratory, all of a sudden you've got a lot of moving parts," says IVF expert Jake Anderson.
The first sign something was聽wrong at the California聽in vitro fertilization clinic was that the couple had thawed and implanted two female embryos only to learn they were carrying聽boys. How could that be? A doctor at CHA Fertility Center聽in Los Angeles聽told the couple that sometimes sonograms get it wrong. He assured the couple "they were聽having girls and that nothing was wrong," according to a federal lawsuit filed by the couple and obtained by USA TODAY. Something was very wrong, according to the couple's legal claim. (Haller, 7/8)
The couple say in a federal lawsuit filed last week in the Eastern District of New York that after years of failed efforts to have children and spending over $100,000 to get pregnant at CHA Fertility, doctors used embryos that belonged to two other couples who had also received treatment there. After giving birth March 30 to a set of twins that were not of Asian descent, the lawsuit says, the couple 鈥渨as shocked to see that the babies they were told were formed using both of their genetic material did not appear to be.鈥 (Stelloh, 7/7)
The lawsuit claims genetic testing confirmed the babies belonged to two other couples, forcing them to give the babies up to their biological parents. They still don't know what happened to their two embryos that should have been implanted. The lawsuit names co-owners of CHA Fertility Center, Dr. Joshua Berger and Simon Hong, as responsible for the "unimaginable mishap." (7/8)
The lawsuit accuses the clinic and doctors of medical malpractice, negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract and more. A lawyer listed for the clinic did not immediately respond to McClatchy鈥檚 request for comment on Monday. In the lawsuit, the couple also accuse the clinic of not telling them what became of the embryos that were supposed to be implanted in the would-be mother, and of 鈥渃ontinuing to wrongfully conceal the whereabouts of 鈥 two embryos that we know were not transferred to鈥 the woman. (Gilmour, 7/8)
Ever since their marriage in 2012, the couple has yearned for children. Specifically, their wish has been 鈥渢o conceive, deliver and raise children of their own,鈥 as their lawsuit claims. Their attempts to conceive a child were unsuccessful, so they turned to different strategies, including artificial insemination. But natural as well as alternative measures left them disappointed. (Stanley-Becker, 7/8)
