IVF clinic blunders: 7 mums had their embryos lost or destroyed

Frozen embryos belonging to hopeful IVF mothers were destroyed or lost in a series of blunders, a fertility clinics' regulator has admitted.

Centres have to operate under strict rules so embryos belonging to hopeful parents are not disposed off without proper permission.

But new data revealed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has lifted the lid on clinic blunders which have occurred in the last five years.

If embryos are accidentally destroyed it can condemn would-be parents to having no chance at all of having their natural children.

In one instance in 2011 Alison Austen-Hennessy was told her frozen embryos, which were being stored at a hospital in Kent, had been thawed but nobody could trace where they had gone.

Alison, of Ramsgate, Kent, said the clinic held an inquiry but could not trace what had happened to her embryos, meaning it couldnt be ruled out that they had been accidentally implanted into another woman.

In another example, precious embryos were erroneously thawed after a breakdown in communication at the clinic.

Hopeful couple Zeb and Hadia Urfan found their frozen embryos were accidentally destroyed after an admin blunder saw staff remove the embryos from the deep freeze at Jessop Fertility, in Sheffield, an NHS clinic which is part of the Royal Hallamshire Hospital.

Staff said they took them out because they had not received a consent form from the couple to retain the embryos, but data shows the letter had been sent to the wrong department.

Dotty Watkins, Head of Midwifery, Jessop Wing and Assisted Conception Unit said: We carried out a full review into what happened in 2014 and offered our heartfelt apologies to the couple concerned.

See the original post here:
IVF clinic blunders: 7 mums had their embryos lost or destroyed