Latest news with #CoastalFertilitySpecialists
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Inside IVF mix-ups that left women carrying embryos that weren't theirs
From the moment she found out she was pregnant, Krystena Murray was excited to capture every step of the journey. "I have always known I wanted to be a mom," Murray told ABC News. "There was an assignment for school when I was younger, and we were supposed to pick a career. My mom said 'What do you want to be?' And I said, 'A mom.' And she says 'No, like, what do you want to do with your life?' And I looked at her and said, 'A mom.' " The Savannah, Georgia resident chose in vitro fertilization (IVF), a fertility treatment where mature eggs are collected from ovaries and fertilized by sperm in a lab. IVF is a game changer for many families, and recent data show that in the US about 250,000 patients per year receive IVF cycles. "I was a single woman, and I spent years trying to find the perfect person," Murray said. "And the older I got, the more I realized I was more interested in being a mother before I got any older than I was in pursuing a person." ABC News Studios' "IMPACT x Nightline: Switched Before Birth" streams on Hulu beginning Thursday, March 6. The 38-year-old photographer was an oncology nurse for nearly a decade before switching careers. To afford IVF, she worked two and a half jobs, nearly depleting her life savings. Her first IVF embryo transfer was unsuccessful, but her second one worked. Murray imagined what the baby she was carrying would look like, saying she chose a sperm donor with features similar to hers: dirty blonde hair, blue eyes and fair skin. Her baby arrived in December 2023. In the delivery room, that feeling of euphoria shattered moments after the baby boy was born. "They actually held him up for me to see before they took him off to be cleaned and weighed and footprints and all of the things," Murray said. "My first thought was "He's absolutely beautiful. He's gorgeous.' And my second thought was, what happened?" According to Murray, the baby was African American. It was immediately evident that something didn't go as planned. "My first thought was, 'Was it the embryo or was it the sperm?'" Murray said. "My next thought was, 'If he is not mine and he's someone else's embryo, can he be taken?'" Shortly after, she took a DNA test, which confirmed that the baby was not biologically hers. More than a month and a half later, Murray says the clinic Coastal Fertility Specialists informed her that they had identified the baby's biological parents, who were living in another state. "I was still hoping that, you know, there would be some way that I could keep custody of him," Murray said. However, Murray said that the baby's biological parents sued her for custody, and that was when she made what she called an impossible decision. After raising him for the first five months of his life, she gave up the only son she had ever known. "That was the worst day of my life," Murray said. "It wasn't just that I was bonded to him. He was bonded to me." Murray sued Coastal Fertility Specialists, seeking a judgment of more than $75,000, along with punitive damages, recovered attorney fees, treble damages and all other costs. Coastal Fertility Specialists said in a statement to ABC News that their practice "deeply regrets the distress caused by an extremely rare human error" and extends their "sincerest apologies." They emphasized that "this incident does not reflect the high standards we have upheld for 15 years, and no other patients were affected." They also informed ABC News that they implemented additional human witnessing in their lab. They said they also introduced a state-of-the-art digital witnessing system that electronically verifies patient samples in real time using advanced scanning technology. Murray's story may be shocking, but it is not the first of its kind. Daphna and Alexander Cardinale experienced a similar situation. Five years ago, the Los Angeles couple was excited to make their daughter, Olivia, a big sister but struggled to conceive. Eventually, they turned to IVF and were able to get pregnant. Daphna gave birth to a baby girl. Even though the infant didn't resemble her older sister at first, the couple didn't think much of it. However, Alexander couldn't shake the doubt from his mind, especially when others pointed out that their baby appeared to be Asian. The Cardinales are caucasian. The couple requested a DNA test. "That image will be burned into my brain forever," Alexander said. "That reading that it's 99.9% accurate that you're not the father. And then she asked me to read the results for the mother, and then it was 99.9%. It's earth-shattering!" The clinic informed them that their embryo had been switched with the embryo of another couple. That couple had given birth to Alexander and Daphna's biological daughter, named Zoe. Even more shocking, the two families lived just miles apart. They agreed to meet when both baby girls were just over three months old. The two families got together almost every day for the next few weeks. Eventually, they made an agonizing decision: they would switch their four-month-old babies. "It was surreal," Daphne said. "I gave her a bath the first night she was here. And then after I gave her a bath I was like "Oh, you smell like home." And so I was like, okay. I think that was the moment when I spelled it that I was like "Oh, you are my baby." The Cardinales filed a lawsuit against their fertility clinic and ultimately reached a private settlement. Attorney Adam Wolf represented both Murray and the Cardinales. He told ABC News that his firm has also represented more than a thousand others in lawsuits against fertility clinics. "Whether it is dropping eggs or embryos on the ground, or mixing the wrong sperm with the egg or switching embryos from couple A to couple B," Wolf said. "Those are things that are life-altering." Mishaps may be rare, but families who experience them face unimaginable consequences. Wolf says that at the crux of the issue is a need for more regulation to prevent and track mistakes, and better enforcement in the event of an error. 'This is now a maturing industry that greatly needs regulation,' Wolf said. 'People like Krystena needed it a year ago, and the next Krystena will need it before this happens.' The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) says that IVF is 'one of the most heavily regulated procedures in all American medicine.' They also say that medical providers have an ethical duty to disclose clinically significant errors. ASRM's affiliate group The Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) accredits and oversees IVF clinics. ASRM says on their website that 'to be a SART member, clinics must meet a rigorous set of standards, including credentialing of clinic staff, accreditation of their laboratory, and adherence to the routinely updated Practice and Ethics guidelines set by ASRM.' Those recommendations include protocols for embryo transfers and genetic testing. However, Dov Fox, who studies the intersection of fertility care and health law, says that these are 'just recommendations' and that 'they're not enforced in any meaningful way.' Dov Fox is the Herzog Research Professor of Law at the University of San Diego where he directs the Center for Health Law Policy and Bioethics. He is also the author of an academic book 'Birth Rights and Wrongs: How Medicine and Technology are Remaking Reproduction and the Law' and investigative podcast 'Donor 9623' on this topic. Regarding the state of regulation, Fox says that 'assisted reproduction in the United States is not the wild west, but there are no enforceable measures to reliably keep things from going wrong or from making them right if and when they do.' 'Federal policy is limited to FDA requirements that donors be tested for communicable diseases like AIDS, and a 1992 law that asks clinics to report pregnancy rates to the CDC.'He explains that CDC data 'doesn't include either why successes didn't happen, what the failure resulted from… Was it pre existing infertility complications for example, or a mix up, switch loss or destruction that might have related to negligent misconduct?' There is also no federally mandated requirement for clinics to report mistakes if they occur, nor is there a centralized database that tracks errors. However, according to Fox, regulation could pose the risk of increasing prices and therefore potentially reducing access and stifling innovation. For Krystena Murray and the Cardinale family, they say there are measures that can be implemented that would prevent mistakes from occurring, and they are insisting on change. Alexander and Daphna Cardinale have launched a nonprofit 'Hope Without Harm.' 'And so now our purpose has become just educating everybody else about it and saying that this is probably not going to happen to you, and here are the steps you can take to be safer about it,' Alexander Cardinale said. 'There was a mistake made, and then because a mistake was made, we can say, oh, well, how do we prevent it next time?' "I wanted to tell my story," Murray said. "I wanted people to realize that this isn't just something that might happen or that could happen, this is something that does happen. And for them to hear how hard it is when it does happen." Inside IVF mix-ups that left women carrying embryos that weren't theirs originally appeared on
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Georgia woman says she'll 'never fully recover' after IVF mix-up leads to her losing custody of baby
A woman's deeply personal journey through in vitro fertilization turned into an emotional ordeal, as she now claims she was left feeling "violated" after giving birth to a child who wasn't biologically hers, according to a lawsuit. The suit, filed Tuesday in Georgia state court, alleges that 38-year-old Krystena Murray "unknowingly and unwillingly carried a child through pregnancy who was not biologically related to her," something she learned only once she delivered the baby boy. "The birth of my child was supposed to be the happiest moment of my life, and honestly, it was," Murray said in a Monday news conference. "But it was also the scariest moment of my life." "All of the love and joy I felt seeing him for the first time was immediately replaced by fear. How could this have happened?" she said. Vermont Accused In Lawsuit Of Tracking Pregnant Women Considered Unsuitable To Be Mothers Her journey with IVF was facilitated by Coastal Fertility Specialists, which operates clinics in South Carolina and Georgia. The 38-year-old went through daily injections, endured egg retrieval, had an embryo implanted and finally got pregnant, but her joy was cut short after birth. Read On The Fox News App The lawsuit said Murray carefully chose a sperm donor who closely resembled her, selecting one with white skin, dirty blonde hair, and blue eyes. Coastal Fertility transferred an embryo to Murray in 2023, but when she gave birth in December, Murray immediately "knew something was very wrong," the lawsuit says, because the boy that she delivered was a "dark-skinned, African American baby." Pregnant Woman And Baby Saved After Doctors Find Grapefruit-sized Tumor: 'Extremely Rare' Her suspicions were verified following a DNA test that showed her baby was not biologically related to her. Murray said that despite knowing of the mix-up, she loved the baby boy. "Ms. Murray had no issues or concerns with the Baby's race, other than the fact that it indicated to her that he was clearly not related to her," the lawsuit said. The mix-up kept her from posting pictures of the baby on social media or allowing him to be seen by family and friends, the lawsuit said. People who saw her child in public questioned whether he was hers and made "awkward and inappropriate comments," the lawsuit continued. Two months later, Coastal Fertility suspected that it had transferred a different couple's embryo to Murray. They broke the news to the couple, who in turn sued Murray to obtain custody of the child. Murray voluntarily gave up custody of the boy in May 2024 after her family-law counsel concluded that she was going to lose the custody battle, the complaint said. "This has destroyed me," Murray said during the conference. "I'm heartsick; I'm emotionally broken. Nothing can express the shock and violation upon learning that your doctor put a stranger's embryo into your body. To carry a baby, fall in love with him, deliver him, and build the uniquely special bond between mother and baby, all to have him taken away." "I'll never fully recover from this," she said. President Trump Signs Executive Order On Ivf The lawsuit notes that she still does not know if Coastal Fertility transferred her embryo to someone else, and therefore she does not know if "her biologically related child is being raised by anyone else." The clinic's mistake led Murray to be "turned into an unwitting surrogate, against her will, for another couple," the lawsuit added. "She carried, lovingly cared for, and delivered a child who ended up not being biologically related to her," the lawsuit said. "And then, for nearly half a year she bonded with the child – her child – in addition to her bonding with the baby while he was still in the womb." READ THE LAWSUIT: MOBILE USERS Click Here In a statement, Coast Fertility Specialists said they "deeply regret" the "unprecedented" mix-up. They noted it was an "isolated incident." "While this ultimately led to the birth of a healthy child, we recognize the profound impact this situation has had on the affected families, and we extend our sincerest apologies," they said. "We are doing everything we can to make things right for those affected by this incident. We will continue to uphold the integrity of our practice and our commitment to supporting families in their journey to parenthood." The suit filed by her lawyer, Adam Wolf of Peiffer Wolf, alleges negligence on the clinic's part. Fox News Digital has reached out to Peiffer Wolf for comment. Murray is seeking a jury trial, $75,000 in judgment and other damages, according to the article source: Georgia woman says she'll 'never fully recover' after IVF mix-up leads to her losing custody of baby
Fox News
21-02-2025
- Health
- Fox News
Georgia woman says she'll 'never fully recover' after IVF mix-up leads to her losing custody of baby
A woman's deeply personal journey through in vitro fertilization turned into an emotional ordeal, as she now claims she was left feeling "violated" after giving birth to a child who wasn't biologically hers, according to a lawsuit. The suit, filed Tuesday in Georgia state court, alleges that 38-year-old Krystena Murray "unknowingly and unwillingly carried a child through pregnancy who was not biologically related to her," something she learned only once she delivered the baby boy. "The birth of my child was supposed to be the happiest moment of my life, and honestly, it was," Murray said in a Monday news conference. "But it was also the scariest moment of my life." "All of the love and joy I felt seeing him for the first time was immediately replaced by fear. How could this have happened?" she said. Her journey with IVF was facilitated by Coastal Fertility Specialists, which operates clinics in South Carolina and Georgia. The 38-year-old went through daily injections, endured egg retrieval, had an embryo implanted and finally got pregnant, but her joy was cut short after birth. The lawsuit said Murray carefully chose a sperm donor who closely resembled her, selecting one with white skin, dirty blonde hair, and blue eyes. Coastal Fertility transferred an embryo to Murray in 2023, but when she gave birth in December, Murray immediately "knew something was very wrong," the lawsuit says, because the boy that she delivered was a "dark-skinned, African American baby." Her suspicions were verified following a DNA test that showed her baby was not biologically related to her. Murray said that despite knowing of the mix-up, she loved the baby boy. "Ms. Murray had no issues or concerns with the Baby's race, other than the fact that it indicated to her that he was clearly not related to her," the lawsuit said. The mix-up kept her from posting pictures of the baby on social media or allowing him to be seen by family and friends, the lawsuit said. People who saw her child in public questioned whether he was hers and made "awkward and inappropriate comments," the lawsuit continued. Two months later, Coastal Fertility suspected that it had transferred a different couple's embryo to Murray. They broke the news to the couple, who in turn sued Murray to obtain custody of the child. Murray voluntarily gave up custody of the boy in May 2024 after her family-law counsel concluded that she was going to lose the custody battle, the complaint said. "This has destroyed me," Murray said during the conference. "I'm heartsick; I'm emotionally broken. Nothing can express the shock and violation upon learning that your doctor put a stranger's embryo into your body. To carry a baby, fall in love with him, deliver him, and build the uniquely special bond between mother and baby, all to have him taken away." "I'll never fully recover from this," she said. The lawsuit notes that she still does not know if Coastal Fertility transferred her embryo to someone else, and therefore she does not know if "her biologically related child is being raised by anyone else." The clinic's mistake led Murray to be "turned into an unwitting surrogate, against her will, for another couple," the lawsuit added. "She carried, lovingly cared for, and delivered a child who ended up not being biologically related to her," the lawsuit said. "And then, for nearly half a year she bonded with the child – her child – in addition to her bonding with the baby while he was still in the womb." READ THE LAWSUIT: MOBILE USERS CLICK HERE In a statement, Coast Fertility Specialists said they "deeply regret" the "unprecedented" mix-up. They noted it was an "isolated incident." "While this ultimately led to the birth of a healthy child, we recognize the profound impact this situation has had on the affected families, and we extend our sincerest apologies," they said. "We are doing everything we can to make things right for those affected by this incident. We will continue to uphold the integrity of our practice and our commitment to supporting families in their journey to parenthood." The suit filed by her lawyer, Adam Wolf of Peiffer Wolf, alleges negligence on the clinic's part. Fox News Digital has reached out to Peiffer Wolf for comment. Murray is seeking a jury trial, $75,000 in judgment and other damages, according to the lawsuit.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
This White Woman Is Suing After Giving Birth To a Black Baby, But Hold On! It's Not What You Think!
A major mixup at a Georgia fertility clinic forced one woman to make the heartbreaking decision to give up a baby she carried to term and raised for months. Now, as she tries to move on from her pain, she is seeking justice. Krystena Murray filed a February 18 lawsuit in a Georgia state court against Coastal Fertility Specialists. According to NBC News, Murray, who is white, says in her suit that she had no idea the baby she carried to term was not hers biologically. Although Murray chose a blonde-haired, blue-eyed sperm donor, it was not until she delivered a 'dark-skinned, African American baby' in December 2023 that she realized something wasn't quite right. Murray says she didn't post pictures of her new Black baby on social media, but she continued to care for him as her own hoping that it was just a sperm mixup at the clinic. But in January 2024, an at-home DNA test kit confirmed that Murray wasn't biologically related to her baby. According to CBS News, she told the clinic about the issue in February 2024. Coastal Fertility Specialists tracked down the baby's biological parents who sued Murray for custody. After raising the baby for over three months, Murray made the agonizing decision to give him to his parents. In her lawsuit, Murray is asking for $75,000 and other damages. 'I walked in a mom with a child and a baby who loved me and was mine and was attached to me, and I walked out of the building with an empty stroller, and they left with my son,' she told NBC News. In a statement, Coastal Fertility Specialists apologized for the mixup adding that no other patients were impacted by the confusion. 'This was an isolated event with no further patients affected. The same day this error was discovered we immediately conducted an in-depth review and put additional safeguards in place to further protect patients and to ensure that such an incident does not happen again,' they said in part. While Murray knows she did the right thing, she says she is still haunted by the trauma of having to say goodbye to the baby she thought was hers. I'll never fully recover from this,' Murray told CBS News. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
‘Broken': Georgia woman who gave birth to someone else's baby sues fertility clinic
SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) — A Georgia woman says her journey to motherhood has left her 'emotionally and physically broken,' and now she is suing the company responsible. Even as a child, Krystena Murray, 38, of Savannah, always told people it was her dream to be a mom. Two years ago, she became pregnant after undergoing in vitro fertilization, a life-changing procedure for people trying to have a child. She said her joy was taken away within seconds of delivery after discovering that the fertility clinic had made a fateful mistake. She is now suing Coastal Fertility Specialists for negligence. Murray had turned to Coastal Fertility Specialists to help her get pregnant. She began treatment in early 2023 and became pregnant the second time an embryo was implanted in her uterus. She gave birth in December 2023, but within 15 seconds of the baby boy's arrival, her life had changed forever. 'He was beautiful and literally the best thing I had ever seen. But it was also immediately apparent that he was African-American,' said Murray, who, along with her sperm donor, is white. Coastal Fertility Specialists sued over IVF mixup, custody suit Murray said she later learned doctors had transferred another patient's embryo instead of her own. She filed a civil lawsuit Tuesday against Coastal Fertility Specialists, alleging the clinic's negligence caused her ongoing pain and anguish. 'The fertility clinic has hurt me in ways that I have yet to discover, and there are literally no words or unit of measure that can describe the damage that they have caused,' explains Murray. The clinic had implanted the wrong embryo into Murray's body, meaning she gave birth to someone else's son. 'The baby she delivered was African-American. It was clear to Krystena that coastal fertility specialist had made an unimaginable error,' said Adam Wolf, Murray's attorney. 'A DNA test then confirmed that this is in fact what had occurred. Coastal fertility had transferred to Krystena an embryo that belonged to another couple.' Murray knew immediately that the baby didn't develop from one of her own lab-fertilized eggs. 'My first thought is he's beautiful. My second thought was what happened?' said Murray. 'Did they mess up the embryo or did they mess up the sperm? And if they messed up the embryo, can someone take my son?' That's exactly the situation she faced. Knowing she was not the biological mother and would not win a legal battle, after caring and loving her son for five months, she gave him up to the couple whose egg she had carried. 'I obviously would have kept him forever if I could have, and I would have done anything to have done that,' said Murray. 'But that was not an option. So I did what was best for him and made that process as quick and easy as possible with the hopes that this would hopefully not affect him and his growth and development in the future, that he could go and bond with his new family and that this would not be something that would have lifelong effects on him.' Murray said after reporting the mix-up to the fertility clinic, its staff tracked down and notified the baby's biological parents, who demanded custody. 'My child was ultimately taken from me as the clinic had implanted into my womb the embryo from a stranger. I have never felt so violated, and this situation has left me emotionally and physically broken,' said Murray. 'I'll never be the same woman. I will never fully heal or completely move on. And part of me will always long for my son and wonder what kind of person he's becoming.' More adults are wondering if they have autism. Here are tips to seek a diagnosis Her lawsuit says the clinic's 'extreme and outrageous' mistake caused Murray to be 'turned into an unwitting surrogate, against her will, for another couple.' She's seeking unspecified monetary damages. 'I can tell you that carrying a child who is not yours unknowingly and loving them, creating a whole life for them, birthing them, knowing they're not yours, loving them anyway, and wanting them. I honestly would have just chosen not to become a mother,' she said. Wolf said while this situation is impossibly sad, Murray is far from alone. 'Coastal Fertility made a serious mistake and the consequences are life-altering for Krystena,' Wolf said. 'This is not the first IVF mixed-up case that I've handled, and sadly, it will not be the last. A big reason is the lack of regulation. Unfortunately, the United States is one of the few developed countries without meaningful oversight over fertility clinic laboratories. Until IVF clinics are subject to real regulations, reporting requirements and mandatory certification programs for lab staff these types of errors will continue to occur.' Coastal Fertility Specialists operates a clinic in Savannah and four others in neighboring South Carolina. The medical practice apologized in an emailed statement for what it called 'an unprecedented error that resulted in an embryo transfer mix-up.' It said the staff has adopted new safeguards to prevent similar mistakes from happening in the future. 'This was an isolated event with no further patients affected,' the statement said. 'We are doing everything we can to make things right for those affected by this incident.' The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
