LONGWOOD, Fla. — As an IVF clinic in Longwood gets ready to close at the end of May because of an embryo mix-up, doctors from other IVF clinics say, it should never have happened.
One doctor says he had to turn away a couple from the Longwood clinic, concerned their embryos were compromised.
Dr. Mark Trolice of the IVF Center says patients from the Fertility Center Orlando in Longwood have been approaching him for help.“Tragic on so many levels. And it really disclosed that the labeling system seems to have been faulty.”
He explains why, “The labeling were handwritten. And when that goes into liquid nitrogen after a period of time, it may not be as legible.”
Trolice says, in one case, he had to turn a couple down, concerned their embryos were compromised.“This one couple where embryos were received and the labeling was just not to the standard that we felt comfortable.”
At the Center for Reproductive Medicine, doctors say they have checks and balances in place to prevent an embryo mix-up. At the IVF lab, several alarms are in place to protect the embryos. Dr. Sejal Patel says it’s rare that a mix-up occurs: “Any time reproductive tissue is handled, it’s independently identified by two separate embryologists.”
And at the IVF Center, Dr. Trolice says, “Your heart goes out to the couple that have endured this.”
Steven Mills and Tiffany Score discovered they received someone else’s embryo during IVF, after their baby was born. They released a statement about finding the biological parents of their child saying, “This ends one chapter in our heartbreaking journey, but it raises new issues that will have to be resolved. In addition, questions about the disposition of our own embryos are still unanswered and are even more unlikely to ever be answered. Only one thing is as absolutely certain today as it was on the day our daughter was born—we will love and will be this child’s parents forever.”
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