Woman continues the fertility clinic, saying that she gave birth to the baby of another patient

By Russ bynum

Savannah, Ga. (AP) – Krystena Murray became pregnant after undergoing in vitro fertilization two years ago, and said that she was not aware until she gives birth that the clinic of fertility had made a fateful mistake.

In December 2023, Murray delivered a healthy little boy. But she also immediately knew that she did not develop from one of her own laboratory fertilized eggs. The baby was black, while Murray and his sperm donor are both whites. She said that she learned later that the doctors had transferred the embryo of another patient instead of hers.

Anyway, Murray decided to raise the child. But after reporting the mixture to the fertility clinic, she says, her staff found and informed the baby’s biological parents. They demanded police custody, said Murray, and she abandoned the 5 -month -old boy to avoid a legal fight that she could not win.

Murray, 38, of Savannah, filed a civil lawsuit on Tuesday against specialists in coastal fertility, alleging that the neglect of the clinic to mix her embryos with other couples her pain and anxiety.

“I have never felt so violated and the situation left me emotionally and physically broken,” Murray told journalists at a virtual press conference. “I spent all my life wanting to be a mom. I loved, nourished and cultivated my child and I would have literally done anything to keep him. »»

Coastal fertility specialists operate a clinic in Savannah and four others in neighboring South Carolina. Medical practice apologized in a statement sent by e-mail for what it called “an unprecedented error which led to an embryos transfer mixture”. He said the staff had adopted new guarantees to prevent similar mistakes from performing in the future.

“This was an isolated event without other affected patients,” the statement said. “We do our best to do correct things for people affected by this incident.”

Murray said everything seemed normal when she started treatment at the beginning of 2023. She made injections to stimulate the production of eggs, which were then collected and fertilized in a laboratory using a sperm of a donor. She said she got pregnant the second time an embryo was located in her uterus.

But his trial indicates that the “extreme and scandalous” error of the clinic made Murray was “transformed into an involuntary substitute, against his will, for another couple”. She is looking for unpertified monetary damage.

His lawyer, Adam Wolf, said that Murray still didn’t know what happened to his own embryos. We still don’t know how the mixture occurred, he said.

The Wolf law firm has represented more than 1,000 patients taking measures against fertility clinics, often for errors such as lost or damaged embryos to be abandoned on the ground or to be stored in defective freezers . He said that the transfer of the bad embryo to a patient seems rare.

“Fertility clinics engage in a work of vital importance,” said Wolf, adding: “With this incredible work, there comes real responsibility. And when clinics of fertility make mistakes like this, the consequences change life. »»

Murray recalled the day she gave birth and how her joy quickly gave way to confusion and fear.

If this child could not be his genetically, she wondered, who was the child? And could they take him?

This fear prevented Murray from publishing photos of the baby on social networks, says his trial, or even showing him to friends and family at the start. Shortly after giving birth, Murray kept her newborn covered with coverage to avoid questions during the funeral to which she attended.

Murray passed a DNA test at the beginning of last year which confirmed that the baby did not come from one of his embryos. Wolf said his company informed coastal fertility specialists shortly after because Murray hoped that the clinic would improve its procedures and guarantees.

The clinic determined who was the biological parents of the child, said Wolf, and let them know that Murray had given birth after receiving one of their embryos.

Murray said the couple had continued him in police custody last year. She volunteered to abandon the baby, she said, after her lawyers told her that she had no chance of winning in court.

It was last May, when the baby was 5 months old. Murray said she hadn’t seen her since.

“I considered the consequences of IVF to enter,” said Murray, including the risks of bleeding, infection, sterility and possibly death.

“I never considered that I could be born someone else’s child and having kidnapped them,” she said. “And I have the impression that it should be something that women are aware as a real possibility.”

Originally published: February 18, 2025 at 2:24 p.m. PST