Niamh Shackleton
A family who conceived their child using IVF have made a heartbreaking discovery 18 years later.
Almost 100,000 families each year turn to IVF to help them conceive, making it a common method of having child for couples who struggle with infertility.
It's thought that more than eight million babies have been born from IVF since 1978, Cleveland Clinic reports.
While it's now a fairly common practice, that doesn't stop mistakes from happening - as one family have recently learned for themselves.
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An 18-year-old daughter, who was born via IVF, did a DNA test via Ancestry.com to find out more about her history last year.
But she ended up finding out something unexpected; that she was not biologically related to her parents.
In light of the heartbreaking discovery, the family (who have not been named) are suing the now-defunct Nevada Fertility Care.
Speaking on the matter, their lawyer Robert Murdock said, as per 8 News Now: "My client had more tears than I’ve ever seen someone shed, because what he thought was his daughter - isn’t."
Murdock filed the lawsuit Monday (September 30) in Clark County District Court.
Rachel A. McConnell, MD, is named as the defendant in the suit.
The teenager's mom died in 2022, a year before her daughter took the test, meaning she never knew about the apparent IVF mishap.
It is the father and daughter who are suing the clinic and McConnell.
The DNA results are said to have shown that neither the teenager’s father’s sperm nor the donor egg were implanted in the mother.
It's believed that the embryo came from another Las Vegas family instead. Meanwhile, it's unknown what happened to the couple's embryo that wasn't used.
While the clinic that they received the treatment at is no longer running, both the doctor and embryologist remain working in the IVF industry, the lawsuit said.
Following the discovery, the 18-year-old's father now has to legally adopt her. He'll also have to amend her birth certificate.
The family's lawyer said that the point of the suit is 'finding out what happened, why and hopefully making sure that this is the only mistake out there'.
The documents cite negligence and malpractice, and demand a jury decide any culpability and potential damages.
UNILAD have approached McConnell for comment.
A similar ordeal has happened to a family in Salt Lake City too.
Vanner and Donna Johnson had IVF treatment in 2007 and went on to welcome a son.
But after doing a DNA test for fun, it was revealed that Donna’s egg was fertilized by someone else’s sperm during the IVF process.
They went on to take action against the University of Utah Center for Reproductive Medicine.
In 2022, they settled the suit out of court.