Rhianna Benson
A woman in Georgia, US, has filed a lawsuit against a fertility clinic, claiming a botched IVF treatment led to staff implanting the wrong embryo, and her giving birth to another couple's child.
As per the lawsuit - which was obtained by ABC News after being filed to the State Court of Chatham County on Tuesday (18 Feb) - 38-year-old Krystena Murray became pregnant in 2023 after choosing a white sperm donor with 'dirty blonde hair and blue eyes'.
When she gave birth in December of that year, however, she quickly realised that a mistake had been made in the fertility process, when the infant she welcomed into the world was African-American.
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The legal filings hear that, despite Murray bonding with the child she birthed and considering raising him as her own, she knew that the process had gone wrong on the part of South-Carolina-based clinic the Coastal Fertility Specialists (CFS).
A subsequent at-home DNA test confirmed that the child she bore had no biological relation to Murray, and she instructed the clinic to alert her baby's genetically-connected parents of the mix-up.
During this point, she breastfed the baby for several weeks and attended numerous doctors' appointments with him.
Reflecting on the baby's birth, she recalled in a press conference this week, announcing her legal plans: "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.
"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."
In a shock twist of fate, however, the other couple sued Murray for custody, and she was subsequently informed by her lawyer that she'd likely lose any case - as well as a 'tremendous amount of money and time' - brought against her.
She eventually returned the baby boy to his biological parents five months later, describing the day as the 'hardest' 'of my life'.
"I think about him every single day," she told ABC. "There's not a day that I don't wonder what he's doing. 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."
Speaking to the news outlet, the heartbroken Savannah woman admitted of her parenthood ambitions: "I questioned at first whether I was meant to be a mom, because I had tried for so long.
"This is something that actually happens, and it's devastating, and it can ruin someone's life, and realise that it is an actual possibility."
Murray went on to explain that she believed throughout her 'younger years' that she 'needed to have the perfect person or spouse' to start a family - though, in recent years, she realised she could do so on her own.
Prior to undergoing treatment with the clinic, she unsuccessfully attempted intra-uterine insemination.
The newly-filed lawsuit adds, however, that Murray still doesn't know the fate that befell her own embryo, and worries this may have been mistakenly handed to another couple.
In the legal complaint, she accuses the clinic and several members of its staff of negligence, gross negligence, bailment, breach of fiduciary duty, fraudulent concealment, battery, and lack of informed consent.
Murray also accused the facility of violations of both the Georgia Fair Business Practices Act, and the South Carolina Unfair Trade Practices Act.
Her attorney is seeking an excess of $75,000, as well as a series of other payments, including punitive damages, recovered attorney fees, and recovered treble damages.
Murray also claimed that, though the devastating fiasco has left her questioning motherhood in general, she hopes to bring awareness to healthcare facilities so that other aspiring mothers don't have to endure the same agony she did.
"You're not alone and use your voice. Don't be silenced," she told the outlet.
"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."
In a statement on behalf of the clinic, Coastal Fertility Specialists said it 'deeply regrets the distress caused by an unprecedented error that resulted in an embryo transfer mix-up'.
“This was an isolated event with no further patients affected. The same day this error was discovered we immediately conducted an in-depth review and put additional safeguards in place to further protect patients and to ensure that such an incident does not happen again,” the statement read in part.