IVF Embryo Fiasco

Story from The Telegraph

A couple's last hopes of having another child have been shattered after a blunder at an NHS fertility clinic saw their final usable embryo implanted in another woman.

The error was made after a doctor at the clinic failed to carry out checks that require all fertility procedures to be witnessed and verified. The woman who mistakenly received the embryo was told of the mistake shortly after it occurred and had a termination.

The unnamed couple, who wanted to try for their second child, have spoken of their devastation and disbelief after winning a legal battle against the IVF Wales clinic, in Cardiff. Nine embryos had been created using IVF in 2000, and the woman, a 38-year-old hospital worker, subsequently gave birth to a son three years later.

The remaining embryos were stored until 2007 when she and her husband, a 40-year-old printing plant manager, decided to try for a second child. One of the embryos had survived and they travelled to the clinic for treatment only to be told the news. In a newspaper interview, the woman said: "In less than ten 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'.

"We were both rooted to our seats. We were stunned and trembling. We held each other tightly, and sobbed and sobbed. "It was like water from a tap. I kept thinking, "They've killed our baby! Killed our baby!"

She said it was not until later they discovered the embryo had been implanted in another woman who elected to have a termination when she found out what had happened.

"We were shaking with shock and bursting with anger, especially as it was the one thing all IVF patients are told could never happen," the woman added. "What's more, it was the last of our embryos and, though they offered another round of IVF treatment for free, we turned it down, and made it plain that we would never trust them again."

She said the blunder had put a terrible strain on her relationship with her husband and that it was their son, now aged six, who kept them together. The case follows the revelation yesterday that a white couple in Northern Ireland have had a mixed race baby after another IVF mistake. The woman was fertilised with 'Caucasian cape coloured' donor sperm instead of the 'white Caucasian sperm which they had requested.

The Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust has admitted liability for the Welsh case and the couple have been paid an undisclosed sum of money. It said changes have been made in a bid to prevent such a mistake happening again.

Ian Lane, the Trust's Medical Director, said: "We apologise unreservedly for this mistake. This was a rare but extremely upsetting incident for everyone involved and we take full responsibility for the distress caused to both couples and their families. We have made a number of improvements to our systems and checks, in line with the recommendations made in the reports. We have strengthened our protocols and reduced our workload to relieve pressure on staffing levels."

The Government's fertility regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), said that it was a serious error. A spokeswoman said that because the IVF process involves microscopic materials it was impossible to eliminate all human error and clinics were encouraged to report any incidents.

She said IVF Wales reported the incident to them in December 2007 and an inspection was immediately carried out. "A report of that was then considered by a licence committee of the authority and they found that the clinic was taking the incident very seriously and had already made progress in following up the recommendations," the spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman said IVF treatment was carried out 50,000 times a year in the UK and incidents or "near misses" arose in less that 0.5 per cent of those treatments. Around 12,000 IVF babies are now born in the UK every year, according to figures from the HFEA.