IVF nightmare as Anhui hospital mixes up embryos
A man in Anhui Province found out that a local hospital gave his ex-wife the incorrect embryo during IVF.
Thepaper.cn said that a paternity test done by Liu Wen (pseudonym) of Hefei, Anhui Province, in March 2020 showed that neither he nor his ex-wife, Sun Fang (pseudonym), are the biological parents of the boy they raised.
The paternity test report found that Liu Wen and Sun Fang were not the biological parents of their son Liu Xiao.
He told thepaper.cn that his son, Liu Xiao (pseudonym), was a test-tube baby and blamed the Reproductive Medicine Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of AHMU for transferring the wrong embryos.
"Be tolerant and open-minded. If I had such a child, I would be very happy," the hospital consoled Liu when the mistake was discovered.
Liu took the hospital to court.
On November 7, 2022, the court ruled that the reproductive center owed Liu Wen and Sun Fang over 640,000 yuan (US$93,057) in compensation.
However, Liu and Sun want to know who Liu Xiao's biological parents are. Did he and his ex-wife have any embryos, and if so, where?
"The embryos taken from Liu and Sun have not been found, and it is unlikely that the biological parents of Liu Xiao will be found," the hospital told thepaper.cn on Friday.
The investigation is still ongoing, and the findings will be released in due course, according to the local health commission on Monday.
According to tianyancha.com, a well-known large data technology service company, the hospital has been involved in hundreds of lawsuits and has been required by the court to pay tens of thousands to millions of yuan in compensation to patients.
The Reproductive Medicine Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of AHMU.
A businessman who desired a boy
Liu Wen, in his sixties, is a businessman with an annual income of nearly 1 million yuan. His only wish was to have his own child.
He had a daughter from his first marriage who had a medical condition that rendered her unable to care for herself.
They had no children with their second wife, Sun Fang, and after much thought decided to have a test-tube baby.
Sun became pregnant in June 2011 after depositing eggs in the hospital in October 2010 and March 2011, respectively. A healthy baby boy was born 10 months later.
Liu Wen doted on the child. But as the child grew older, Liu discovered that he and Liu Xiao had nothing in common.
He took a paternity test without telling his son, and the results revealed that Liu Xiao was not related to him.
In July of the same year, Sun conducted a DNA comparison with Liu Xiao, and the results were also unrelated.
The court found the hospital medically negligent.
Liu was devastated and went to court.
The reproductive center failed to ensure the unique direction of the number of each set of embryos during the cryopreservation and extraction process. The court deemed that as "a medical fault."
"My baby is my own, and I will not change my attitude toward him," Sun said.
