Woman gives birth to stranger's baby after IVF bungle in Brisbane
A woman has given birth to another person's baby after their fertility care provider mixed up their embryos.
Monash IVF, which operates across Australia, has apologised after a patient at one of its Brisbane clinics had an embryo incorrectly transferred to her, meaning she gave birth to a child of another woman.
The error was identified in February after the birth parents requested their remaining embryos to be transferred to another IVF provider.
'Instead of finding the expected number of embryos, an additional embryo remained in storage for the birth parents,' the company said in a statement.
Monash IVF said an investigation confirmed an embryo from a different patient had been incorrectly thawed and transferred to the birth parents.
It was blamed on human error.
The birth parents were notified of the mistake within a week of the incident being discovered.
Monash IVF chief executive, Michael Knaap, apologised for the bungle and said the company would continue to support the patients.
'All of us at Monash IVF are devastated and we apologise to everyone involved,' he said.
'We have undertaken additional audits and we're confident that this is an isolated incident.'
The IVF provider asked Victorian senior counsel Fiona McLeod to investigate the incident and committed to implementing any recommendations in full.
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The incident was reported to the Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee, the Queensland assisted reproductive technology regulator.
Monash IVF reached a $56m settlement with more than 700 former patients in August after it allegedly destroyed embryos during faulty genetic screening.
The class action claimed about 35% of embryos found to be abnormal through the fertility provider's flawed genetic testing were normal.
Monash IVF Group confirmed it had reached the settlement through mediation but noted it had made no admission of liability.
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