Human error resulted in the “incorrect transfer” of the embryo from a patient to another woman, who later gave birth
An Australian clinic that makes in vitro fertilization (FIV) treatments admitted to being deceived in the embryo transferred to one of the treatments, which led a woman to give birth to someone else’s son.
“I would like to say that I am very sorry for what happened,” said the director of Brisbane’s Monash IVF (English Acronym for Fertilization), Michael Knaap in a statement.
“We are all devastated at Monash IVF and we apologize to everyone involved. We will continue to support patients during this extremely difficult period,” he noted.
A human error resulted in the “incorrect transfer” of the embryo from a patient to another woman, who later gave birth, the same statement said.
The error was discovered in February, when the child’s parents asked the other frozen embryos to be transferred to another clinic, and another embryo was found than expected.
An investigation determined that an embryo of another patient had been “incorrectly thawed” and transferred to the mother. The date of the incident was not specified.
“The investigation revealed that there was a human error, despite the existence of rigorous laboratory security protocols, including identification processes in various phases,” the statement says.
Monash IVF said it had notified the patients concerned within a week to apologize and offer support.
