An Australian woman has given birth to a stranger’s baby after a fertility doctor accidentally implanted the wrong embryo, the clinic owner said in its apology letter, blaming the mix-up on “human error.”
Monash IVF, which is responsible for nearly one-quarter of Australian IVF treatments, said it learned in February that a woman at its Brisbane clinic had the wrong embryo transferred, “resulting in the birth of a child.”
The mistake was identified when the new parents asked for their remaining embryos to be sent to another clinic. At that time, the company said it discovered an additional embryo in storage.
Photo: AP
It did not disclose the parents’ identity nor comment on their reaction except to say the situation was distressing.
The clinic also did not specify when the woman gave birth and only disclosed that she was informed of the mistake as soon as it was discovered.
“All of us at Monash IVF are devastated and we apologise to everyone involved,” CEO Michael Knaap said in a statement, adding the incident had prompted extra audits, which showed the incident was isolated.
The mix-up has drawn attention to an industry that was largely self-regulated until recently and raised concerns about security protocols at IVF clinics.
The facilities are regulated by a mix of Australian industry bodies and state government agencies.
Queensland Health, the government body Monash reported the incident to, said it only became the regulator in September after the erroneous transfer took place.
Monash IVF said it hired a lawyer to run an independent investigation and reported the incident to the Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee, part of industry group the Fertility Society of Australia, as well as the state body.
“Incidents of this nature are rare,” the Fertility Society said in a statement, adding that “patients place considerable trust in fertility services, and the safe handling and identification of embryos is a fundamental responsibility.”
The news hammered the company’s shares as investors already spooked by market turmoil weighed the reputational impact of what Australian media said was the country’s first scandal of its kind involving an IVF operator.
Monash IVF stock plunged 36 percent yesterday, its heaviest decline since listing more than a decade ago.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
RSS