New York Fertility Institute Dr. Michael Obasaju hands another woman the wrong embryo, Suit says

A woman nearly six months pregnant has had an abortion after she learned her fertility doctor had given her a stranger’s embryo – about two decades after he allegedly did so. similar to another woman, according to a federal lawsuit.

In a complaint filed this week in Manhattan, the woman and husband say they could have terminated the pregnancy earlier but the clinic, New York Fertility Institute, continued to let them know and insisted there were no errors, even after DNA tests proved otherwise.

The combination was even more shocking, the lawsuit says, because in the late 1990s NYFI embryologist Michael Obasaju mistakenly implanted an embryo in another patient, resulting in a white woman giving birth to a baby. white skin and a black baby.

Illustrated by Luis G. Rendon / The Daily Beast / Getty / NY Fertility Institute

“The defendants have a history of mixing, mislabeling and/or complete loss of the patient’s genetic material,” the couple in the current lawsuit, known as Mr and Mrs Doe, charged.

One of the mothers in the previous case, Donna Fasano, told New York Post, which first reported on the suit, that “all I can say is my heart will go off” for the pair in a more recent pairing. The NYFI did not respond to a request for comment.

The Does say their nightmare began with a phone call to the NYFI on April 28, 2020, which resulted in three egg retrievals and a successful IVF procedure in July 2021.

Ms Doe’s obstetrician recommended genetic testing to rule out chromosomal abnormalities, and the couple were shocked when it came back that she had used a donor egg instead of an egg. mine.

“This result makes no sense, as Miss Doe is believed to be carrying an embryo of her own,” the lawsuit says.

According to the complaint, the NYFI has repeatedly told Does that the embryos were not mixed, even after repeated testing with similar results. At one point, the clinic said the mother must have “mosaic”—an extremely rare condition in which someone has two forms of DNA.

It was October 2021 and the increasingly confused couple decided to have amniocentesis to settle the matter. “The procedure was humiliating, stressful and physically damaging to Ms. Doe,” the lawsuit says.

“Multiple Sclerosis. Doe and Mr. Doe had to wait almost a month before they received their DNA test results, and endured the physical and emotional harm caused by the stress of the situation, including all night sleepless, nightmares, fatigue, tension headaches and uncontrollable crying.”

Amniotic fluid test results officially concluded: the fetus inside Ms. Doe is not genetically related to her or her husband.

“The plaintiffs did not know how to handle this information. They are sad and filled with panic and confusion. They were devastated,” the lawsuit says.

“Multiple Sclerosis. Doe and Mr. Doe don’t know what to do. They’ve grown to love this baby, the child has started kicking. On the one hand, they don’t want to lose her even if she doesn’t have one. On the other hand, they can’t imagine holding a stranger’s child due, can only lose her in later legal battles with her biological parents, this will cause damage to the entire family”.

When they tried to get more information from the clinic, they tripped. Meanwhile, the deadline for legal abortion is fast approaching.

“In the end, Mrs. Doe and Mr. Doe had to make the most traumatic decision of their lives. On December 1, 2021, Ms. Doe terminated her pregnancy,” the lawsuit states.

“Shortly after the termination, Ms. Doe felt her uterus throbbing and painful with heavy menstrual bleeding. For four weeks after the surgery, Ms. Doe was producing a lot of milk. Her breasts were so saggy and swollen that she couldn’t leave the house or sleep through the night. When she slept, she experienced nightmares. She was forced to wait patiently while her milk dwindled. Miss Doe also experienced ghost kicks in the weeks following her contract termination. “

In the 1998 case, after Fasano gave birth to twins – one from her embryo and the other from a Black couple, Deborah and Robert Rogers, a legal battle ensued, with Rogerses eventually gaining custody of the child. theirs a few months later.

Photo by Susan Watts / NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

While that’s not an issue in the current case, the lawsuit says Does suffered just as much.

“The defendant’s misconduct robbed Miss Doe of her ability to become pregnant. Mrs. Doe and Mr. Doe are haunted by questions about what has become their embryo. They need to worry about whether their embryo is accidentally transferred to another couple, and whether they have another child or children in a world they have never met.” complaint said.

“On top of those fears, Defendants inflicted on Miss Doe a egregious violation of her body. She was heartbroken to learn that she had unwittingly carried a stranger’s fetus inside her body. The horror of this situation cannot be denied.”