It sounds like the plot of a sci-fi movie, but one woman has claimed that she's given birth to strangers' twins after an IVF mix-up.
The anonymous couple from New York are now filing a lawsuit alleging medical malpractice and negligence against Joshua Berger and Simon Hong - the co-owners of CHA Fertility Clinic.
After spending $100 000 (about R1.4-million) on fertility treatments and IVF, the couple soon fell pregnant with twin boys. But they realised something was wrong after the birth. According to jezebel.com, both parents are of Asian-American descent, and were shocked to find neither baby was of Asian descent.
CBS News reported that genetic testing later revealed that both babies belonged to two separate couples. The babies were then given to those couples.
“They still don’t know what happened to their two embryos that should have been implanted,” reported CBS. The couple alleged that the clinic "knew about the embryo mix-up and tried to conceal it."
According to an IVF expert, embryo mix-ups are not uncommon. Jake Anderson, co-founder of FertilityIQ, a website that attempts to guide people through the IVF process, explained to jezebel.com: “It’s this agonizing process to grow embryos.
“And it involves almost over 200 different steps and when you assume this happens to thousands of patients every year within that laboratory, all of a sudden you’ve got a lot of moving parts.”