Best Healthcare in the World: Doctors give mother wrong embryo, forced to give it up!

Pregnant mother forced to give up IVF baby after doctors gave her wrong embryo

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 5:37 PM on 21st September 2009

A pregnant woman has spoken of her pain at having to give up the IVF baby with which she had been mistakenly impregnated.
Mother-of-three Carolyn Savage was trying to have a fourth child through IVF, and was overjoyed to find she was pregnant again.
But just two months into the pregnancy, doctors told her husband Sean that the child his wife was carrying was not their own.
The nightmare mix-up means that eight-months pregnant Carolyn, and husband Sean, will have to hand over the baby boy when she gives birth in just two weeks.
Carolyn Savage with her husband Sean, and their two sons, and their baby toddler. She will have to give up the baby due in two weeks
The couple, from Sylvania, Ohio, decided early on that they would not terminate the pregnancy but hand back the baby, which is not genetically theirs.
Carolyn and Sean turned to IVF after ten years of trying and have their third child, daughter Mary Kate, 18 months ago.
Carolyn was implanted with remaining embryos back in February in an attempt to have a fourth child.
'It has been hard, we have been rooting for the baby the whole time,' Carolyn said on NBC's Today Show.
'I think we moved from a position of shock to a realisation that this was going to happen.
'it has been difficult, but we feel that we have made the right decisions on how to handle it.'
The couple are now hoping to give their remaining embryos to another carrier
Carolyn admits that she is dreading the moment she has to hand the boy she carried for nine months over to his parents.
''We can't control what happens inside the delivery room, nature takes its course but it is a C-section.
'We have tried to visualise it and we have worked with a mental health professional since we have learned of this situation and he has helped us move to, boy, in the beginning we were really scared of that moment, and it is still scary.
'We are trying to mentally frame it in a positive way and look at is as a gift for this family that 8 months ago we did not know.
'I think that is the only way we will get through it.'
The couple met with the genetic parents of the baby growing inside Carolyn just 14 weeks into the pregnancy.
'I remember communicating with the mother of this child as to what I was envisioning and hoping for.
'I said that we wanted a moment to say hello and to say goodbye. That will be hard.'
Carolyn said she just did not believe what her husband was telling her.

'I was upstairs in the bedroom and he came through the door and said "I have really bad news" and I kind of sat up and he said: "You are pregnant but they transferred the wrong embryos."
'I was actually yelling at him: "You are joking, you are joking" and he kept shaking his head.
'He was white as a sheet.'
Asked how he will feel when it comes to handing back the baby, Sean said: 'It will be exceptionally difficult, but at the same time we have been preparing for this for months and what we are giving this other family is our focus as best it can be at this point.'

Asked how his two sons, Andrew and Ryan, have handled it, he said: 'I think they have handled it very well, it was very difficult for us to have to share with them that information.
'They are now at the age where they understand where babies come from so they were able to understand the science behind what happened and they asked some very good questions.
'They have handled it exceptionally well and we have tried to set a tone inside our house that is conducive to keeping this in the most positive way as a teaching moment for them, that when you face a tough situation in life, how are you going to handle it?'
Because of her medical condition this will be the last baby that she can carry, but they have looked into a carrier for their own remaining five embryos.
They have already found a 'gestational carrier' and signed a contract with that woman.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1215090/Eight-months-pregnant-mother-IVF-baby-doctors-gave-wrong-embryos.html#ixzz0RmytOGSK

this happened in the UK. :)

the interview I saw today looked like they sought out the biological parents to see if they wanted the baby. When they said they did it was pretty much all over.

I only caught the interview on the periphery though, my 3 year old was being the way she is and I missed parts of it.