Monash IVF has apologised after a mix-up involving an embryo led to a woman giving birth to a child that wasn’t hers.
In a statement released Thursday, the fertility company confirmed an incident had occurred at its Brisbane clinic “where the embryo of one patient was incorrectly transferred to another patient resulting in the birth of a child”.
“On behalf of Monash IVF, I want to say how truly sorry I am for what has happened,” said Monash IVF CEO Michael Knaap.
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“All of us at Monash IVF are devastated and we apologise to everyone involved. We will continue to support the patients through this extremely distressing time.
“Since becoming aware of this incident, we have undertaken additional audits and we’re confident that this is an isolated incident.
“We are reinforcing all our safeguards across our clinics — we also commissioned an independent investigation and are committed to implementing its recommendations in full.”
The company became aware of the “human error” in February when the birth parents requested the transfer of their remaining embryos to another IVF provider and discovered an additional embryo.
Following an immediate investigation, Monash IVF confirmed that an embryo from a different patient had been incorrectly thawed and transferred to the birth parents.
As a result, a child was born to the wrong parents.
The company said the affected patients have been informed and that support was being provided to both families involved.
The incident has been disclosed to the relevant assisted reproductive technology regulators, including the Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee, and voluntarily reported to the new Queensland ART regulator.