A Georgia woman is suing a fertility clinic after an in vitro fertilization (IVF) mix-up allegedly led to staff implanting the wrong embryo and to her giving birth to another couple’s biological child.
Krystena Murray, 38, of Savannah, said she selected a sperm donor who looked like her “with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes.” She became pregnant and delivered a baby in December 2023, according to the lawsuit.
However, Murray, who is white and who, according to the complaint, had a white sperm donor, was shocked when she gave birth and the baby boy she delivered was African American, the suit states.
Murray bonded with the baby and wanted to keep him, despite knowing that the clinic, Coastal Fertility Specialists (CFS), had likely implanted somebody else’s embryo, according to the lawsuit.
She requested a DNA test which confirmed her fears that the baby was not genetically related to her. When Murray contacted the clinic, staff alerted the baby’s biological parents of the mix-up, according to the lawsuit.
The other couple sued Murray for custody, and she turned over the baby five months after giving birth. She said she has not seen him since.
“I questioned at first whether I was meant to be a mom, because I had tried for so long,” she told ABC News. “This is something that actually happens, and it’s devastating, and it can ruin someone’s life, and realize that it is an actual possibility.”
A lawsuit was filed on Tuesday afternoon in the State Court of Chatham County, in Georgia.
Murray said she had dreamed of being a mother. When she was asked at a young age what she wanted to be, her response was: a mom.
“They were actually referring to career but, my young mind, that’s what I wanted to do with my life was to be a mom,” she said. “I spent the majority of my younger years thinking I needed to have the perfect person or spouse to start a family and, once I started getting older, I realized that my priorities changed, and I wanted to pursue being a mother sooner rather than later.”
For about 18 months prior to contacting CFS, she said she attempted intrauterine insemination without success. During a press conference on Tuesday, Murray said she contacted CFS, which operates clinics in Georgia and South Carolina, in either late 2022 or early 2023.
Over several months, Murray said she attended many appointments that included follow-up exams and blood tests. She also underwent daily injections over a two-week period to stimulate the ovaries to increase egg production, the lawsuit states.
Murray went through one egg retrieval surgery and became pregnant during her second transfer in May 2023, she said. She gave birth in late December 2023.
“So, the first time I saw my son, like any mom, he was beautiful and literally the best thing I’ve ever seen, but it was also immediately apparent that he was African American,” Murray said during the press conference. “I would like to say my first thought is, ‘He’s beautiful.’ My second thought was, ‘What happened? Did they mess up the embryo, or did they mess up the sperm? And if they messed up the embryo, can someone take my son?’ That was all within the course of the first 10 or 15 seconds of me seeing him.”
Murray said she loved the baby and bonded with him, breastfeeding him and taking him to doctors’ appointments, but she knew the clinic had made a mistake somehow.
She purchased an at-home DNA test and received results in late January 2024, confirming the baby was not genetically related to her, according to the lawsuit.
Murray’s attorneys reached out to CFS in February 2024 to share Murray’s fears, the lawsuit states. In March 2024, the clinic realized its mistake and reached out to the biological parents to let them know their embryo had been transferred into Murray, according to the lawsuit.
The biological parents sued Murray for custody of the child. Another DNA test confirmed the baby was genetically related to them, the lawsuit states.
Murray said she wanted to keep the baby and hired a family law attorney but, after a “tremendous amount of money and time,” they told her that she would likely lose her case.
During a family court hearing in May 2024, Murray said she voluntarily turned the baby over to the other couple, marking the last time she saw him.
Murray said surrendering him over to his biological parents was “the hardest day of my life.”
“I think about him every single day. There’s not a day that I don’t wonder what he’s doing,” she told ABC News. “I raised him for five months, but I didn’t get to see his first steps. I don’t know what his first words are. I don’t know, what milestones he’s hitting.”
“I’m not privy to what type of person he’s becoming or how he’s growing and developing, and it is very hard, and I do think of him every single day and wonder how he is,” she added.
According to her lawsuit, Murray said she doesn’t know what happened to her own embryo, whether it was also mistakenly transferred to another couple or resulted in a pregnancy.
Murray said the process made her question motherhood, but she said she is currently getting treatment at another clinic and hopes she can become a mother soon.
Her lawsuit against CFS and some of its staff was filed by the law firm Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise for negligence, gross negligence, bailment, breach of fiduciary duty, fraudulent concealment, battery, lack of informed consent, violations of the Georgia Fair Business Practices Act and violations of the South Carolina Unfair Trade Practices Act.
The attorneys are seeking a judgment in excess of $75,000 as well as punitive damages, recovered attorney fees, recovered treble damages and all other costs. CFS did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Murray’s attorney, Adam Wolf, said he has represented more than 1,000 people against fertility clinics due to errors that allegedly occurred during their treatments. He described Murray’s experience as a patient’s “wildest fear.”
“Having done this work for 13 years now, when you go into a fertility clinic, there’s a risk that they might not get as many eggs as you had hoped, or create as many embryos as you wanted,” he told ABC News. “You might come out of that process without having any embryos. But what you never think in your wildest fear is that your fertility clinic is going to transfer to you an embryo that belongs to somebody else. That is beyond the pale, and it should never happen at a fertility clinic.”
He said he hopes this leads CFS to change its processes and procedures so a mistake like this doesn’t happen again and that more safeguards are put in place across the fertility industry nationwide.
Murray said she hopes to bring more awareness by sharing her story and to let other patients going through something similar know they are not alone.
“You’re not alone and use your voice. Don’t be silenced,” she said. “I feel like if we don’t come forward and we don’t speak our truth and we don’t share our experiences, then there will never be change, and this will just be a repetitive cycle. And use your voice, if not for you, because we can’t change the situation that we’re in, then do it for someone else.”
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