Fertility Clinic Implants Wrong Embryo Forcing Couple to Terminate Pregnancy to Avoid Messy Custody Battle

The New York Fertility Institute on the Upper East Side is facing a lawsuit against a couple from Massachusetts who had to terminate a pregnancy after learning that the clinic implanted the wrong embryo in July 2021.

In the lawsuit, the Massachusetts couple, who was only named John and Jane Doe, also claimed that the fertility clinic tried to cover up their mistakes.

According to Daily Mail, the couple has been married since 2010 and already have three children who were conceived naturally. However, their desire for a fourth child has been marred with fertility issues, so they went to the New York fertility clinic.

The couple went through several egg retrieval and fertilization rounds until a viable embryo was produced. It raised their chances of having a baby girl.

So, in July 2021, the fertility doctors transferred the embryo to the mother's fetus. Then in September, the mother had a Panorama test to detect any abnormalities in the baby's chromosome, but the results were inconclusive because her DNA did not match the parents.

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Fertility Clinic Said Mom Had Rare Type of DNA

The mother expressed her concerns to the fertility doctor who impregnated her, Dr. Khalid Sultan. He assured her that there could just be mistakes at the laboratory since she was the only implant procedure for that specific week in July.

Another Panorama test result conducted in October yielded the same conclusion that the baby in the womb had no biological links to her parents. The couple decided to get an amniocenteses procedure at another hospital for further genetic testing and continued meeting with doctors or genetic counselors.

The mom was four months pregnant when Sultan said they finally had an explanation for the inconclusive tests. Apparently, the mom had "mosaicism," or two sets of DNA, a genetic condition so rare that even top doctors cannot explain its complexities, per Yale Medicine.

The couple claimed in the lawsuit that instead of owning up to their mistake, the fertility doctor alluded that the problem was with the mother. Sultan also insisted that what mattered was she was carrying a healthy baby.

Deciding on the Abortion

Before reaching the 24th week of her pregnancy, the couple decided to abort the baby because they could not bear the thought of carrying her to term and birthing her with the looming possibility that her biological parents might sue for custody. The abortion resulted in emotional trauma, bleeding, and painful lactation for weeks, per The Washington Post.

In preparing the lawsuit, the couple learned that Dr. Michael Obasaju, who has been sued in 1998 for implanting the wrong embryo, was also working at the New York Fertility Institute. This bolstered their resolve to pursue the case, given Obasaju's history.

The parents have also enlisted an embryologist to find their missing embryo. However, the fertility clinic has allegedly "stonewalled" the couple and refused to meet with the expert they hired. They have yet to file their response to the lawsuit. 

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