Woman unwittingly gives birth to someone else’s baby in IVF mixup

A single woman who got pregnant with the help of an IVF clinic was horrified when she uncovered a horror mix-up after giving birth.

A white woman is suing a fertility clinic over a heartbreaking IVF screw-up in which she gave birth to another couple’s baby that she was then forced to give up at 5 months old, according to a new lawsuit.

Krystena Murray, 38, welcomed her son in December 2023, but when her newborn was placed into her arms after a gruelling labour, she was stunned to see the baby was black.

Ms Murray, from Savannah in the US state of South Carolina, underwent the fertility treatment using a sperm donor with “dirty blonde hair and blue eyes”, the New York Post reported.

But after giving birth to a baby of a complete different ethnicity to her and the donor, Ms Murry is claiming Coastal Fertility Specialists implanted the wrong embryo into her uterus, the lawsuit, filed Tuesday, states.

“I have never felt so violated and the situation has left me emotionally and physically broken,” Ms Murray said at a press conference.

“I spent my entire life wanting to be a mum. I loved, nurtured and grew my child and I would have done literally anything to keep him.”

Krystena Murray, 38, gave birth to another couple’s baby in a heartbreaking IVF mixup. Picture: Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise

A DNA test revealed the infant wasn’t genetically related to her but she felt connected to the boy and opted to raise him as her own, the suit states.

The clinic, which has branches in Georgia and South Carolina and Savannah, then alerted the biological baby’s parents of the mixup — and they sued for custody.

Ms Murray was then forced to give up the baby, knowing she would likely lose the legal battle, she said.

“I think about him every single day. There’s not a day that I don’t wonder what he’s doing,” she said. “I raised him for five months, but I didn’t get to see his first steps. I don’t know what his first words are. I don’t know, what milestones he’s hitting.”

The US clinic transferred the wrong embryo and she was eventually forced to give up the child. Picture: Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise

It became immediately apparent after she gave birth as the baby was black but she and her donor were white. Picture: Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise

The fertility nightmare turned her “into an unwitting surrogate, against her will, for another couple,” according to the lawsuit — which calls the clinic’s mistake “extreme and outrageous”.

She called the clinic’s error devastating and unexpected.

“I considered the consequences of IVF going in,” Ms Murray said — including the risks of bleeding, infection, sterility and possibly death.

“Never once did I consider I might birth someone else’s child and have them taken from me,” she said.

“And I feel like that should be something that women are aware of as an actual possibility.”

It’s still unclear how the mix-up happened. Her lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages.

She’s now suing the clinic, stating the fertility nightmare turned her ‘into an unwitting surrogate, against her will’. Picture: Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise

The clinic apologised in an email sent to the Associated Press — calling it an “an unprecedented error”.

“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.”

It said the staff has adopted new safeguards to prevent similar mistakes from happening in the future.

Ms Murray’s lawyer, Adam Wolf, said she still doesn’t know what happened to her own embryos.

Mr Wolf described her experience as a patient’s “wildest fear”.

“Fertility clinics engage in vitally important work,” he said.

“With that amazing work comes a real responsibility. And when fertility clinics make mistakes like this, the consequences are life-altering.”

Ms Murray is currently getting treatment at another clinic and still hopes to become a mum.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission