A 38-year-old American woman is suing a fertility clinic after the wrong embryo was implanted in her – and she then had to give up the baby to its biological parents after giving birth.
Krystena Murray, from Savannah, Georgia, gave birth to a healthy boy in December 2023 after deciding to try to have a child with the help of a sperm donor.
After the birth, she knew there had been a mistake as the baby was black, while she and the donor were white.
Ms Murray said she contacted the clinic, Coastal Fertility Specialists, and found out doctors had implanted another patient’s embryo in her instead of her own.
She said the baby’s biological parents were notified and they demanded custody.
Ms Murray voluntarily gave up custody of the then five-month-old boy to avoid a legal battle as part of a situation she said had left her “emotionally and physically broken”.
She said: “My child was ultimately taken from me as the clinic had implanted into my womb an embryo from a stranger. I’ve never felt so violated.”
Krystena Murray. Pic: Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise
After handing the child over in a court, she told Sky’s US partner network NBC News: “I walked in a mum 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.”
Ms Murray’s lawsuit, which has been filed at a court in Georgia, says the clinic’s “extreme and outrageous” mistake caused her to be “turned into an unwitting surrogate, against her will, for another couple”.
She said: “The situation has left me emotionally and physically broken.
“I grew him, I raised him, I loved him. I saw no different than if he were mine, my own genetic embryo.”
The Coastal Fertility Specialists clinic in Savannah, Georgia. Pic: AP
Coastal Fertility Specialists, which runs an in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) clinic in Savannah and four others in neighbouring South Carolina, said in a statement to NBC News that it was an “isolated event” and apologised for “an unprecedented error that resulted in an embryo transfer mix-up”.
The clinic added: “We are doing everything we can to make things right for those affected by this incident.”
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Ms Murray said everything seemed normal when she began treatment in early 2023.
She had injections to stimulate the production of eggs, which were later harvested and fertilised in a lab using a donor’s sperm.
The wedding photographer said she became pregnant the second time an embryo was implanted in her uterus.
She added: “I considered the consequences of IVF going in. Never once did I consider I might birth someone else’s child and have them taken from me.”
