A couple have spoken of their shock after an IVF clinic mix-up led to their last embryo being wrongly implanted into another patient.
The clinic where the couple took the treatment
They were further angered when it emerged the other woman was given the morning-after pill.
The couple from Bridgend won their case for damages after the mistake at Cardiff’s University Hospital of Wales.
Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust apologised “unreservedly” for the error and said it had improved checking procedures.
The trust admitted gross failures in care and has also agreed to pay an undisclosed settlement to the couple.
Shattered
The couple, who have not been named, discovered the mix-up when they attended the clinic for the implantation of their last remaining viable embryo in December 2007.
It later emerged that the patient who had wrongly been given their embryo had been given the morning after pill when the mistake was spotted almost immediately. This resulted in the procedure being terminated.
“In less than 10 seconds our wonderful world was shattered when the senior embryologist stood in front of us and said, ‘I’m very sorry to tell you, but there’s been an accident in the lab. Your embryo has been destroyed’,” the woman told the Mail on Sunday.
She added: “We were both rooted to our seats. We were stunned and trembling. We held each other tightly, and sobbed and sobbed.”
The couple’s solicitor, Guy Forster, said the couple were “absolutely distraught” by what happened.
“Even some time later, they still get very tearful when talking about what they went through, and I don’t think that will leave them,” he said.
The woman, a 38-year-old hospital worker, said the couple rejected an offer for a free round of IVF treatment as they felt they could no longer trust the hospital.
She added that the incident put a great strain on her relationship with her husband.
The couple began fertility treatment in 2000.
Following the third cycle of treatment, the woman became pregnant and in April 2003 gave birth to a son.
The remaining embryos were frozen and, in line with the clinic’s policy, were kept for five years.
Wrong shelf
In November 2007 the clinic contacted the couple with the news that just one embryo had survived and was in good condition.
The couple decided to take this last chance to add to their family.
On 5 December 2007, they attended the clinic for the embryo to be transplanted, unaware that in the laboratory a trainee embryologist had mixed up their embryo after taking it from the wrong shelf of the incubator.
The trainee embryologist failed to carry out “fail-safe” witnessing procedures to ensure the embryo being taken from the incubator and implanted belonged to the correct patient.
The mistake was only discovered when another colleague later found that the correct embryo, that belonging to the couple, was missing from the incubator.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) was informed of the incident.
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