Fertility clinic implants embryos into wrong women

A fertility clinic is being sued by at least two couples, including one from New York, after embryos were implanted in the wrong women.

News 12 Staff

Jul 11, 2019, 11:49 AM

Updated 1,842 days ago

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A fertility clinic is being sued by at least two couples, including one from New York, after embryos were implanted in the wrong women.
The CHA Fertility Center in Los Angeles is accused of mishandling embryos by at  least three families. "CHA robbed me of my ability to carry my own child, my baby boy, to be with him in the first couple, you know, moments of his life," says mother Anni Manukyan.
In August 2018, two embryos were implanted into Manukyan.
The procedure didn't produce a pregnancy, devastating Manukyan and her husband Ashot.
But the couple soon found out a Manukyan embryo did develop, and a woman in New York gave birth to that baby. Then, they discovered the embryos inserted into Manukyan came from a different couple.
The entire mix-up was discovered when the Asian birth parents in New York questioned having non-Asian twins. "Due to the extreme misconduct of CHA Fertility Center, the number of things that went wrong here is just plain staggering," says attorney Adam Wolf.
The Manukyans spent the next few weeks getting more information on their biological son and had to sue to obtain custody of their own child.
They first saw him at 6 weeks old. "Who wants to meet their child in the lobby of a hotel?  It was just - it was heartbreaking. It was terrible," says Manukyan.
The Manukyans are suing CHA, as is the birth couple from New York. The couple in New York, not only had to give up the baby, but also a second baby who was implanted incorrectly. That baby went to yet another couple, his genetic parents.
But after all this heartache, it’s been a happy ending for the Manukyans. Their child, Alec, is healthy and bonding with his biological parents.


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