Patient’s own embryo instead of partner’s was ‘incorrectly transferred’, fertility company tells ASX, months after revealing separate Queensland clinic error Australia news live: latest politics updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A second bungled embryo implant at Monash IVF has sparked a new investigation and the expansion of a review into the first incident, which led to a woman unknowingly giving birth to a stranger’s baby. Monash IVF said in a statement on Tuesday that in June “a patient’s own embryo was incorrectly transferred to that patient, contrary to the treatment plan which designated the transfer of an embryo of the patient’s partner”. “Monash IVF has extended its sincere apologies to the affected couple, and we continue to support them,” the fertility company said. The first error was announced in April. In that case, a patient at one of its Queensland clinics had an embryo incorrectly transferred to her, meaning she gave birth to a child of an unrelated woman. The mistake was blamed on human error. Monash IVF asked senior counsel Fiona McLeod to investigate. Lawyers described the incident as a legal and ethical nightmare while Monash IVF said it was confident it was an isolated incident. The latest incident happened in a Victorian laboratory. Monash IVF said it was “conducting an internal investigation into the incident”. The company also “extended the scope of the independent review” being conducted by McLeod. It further said on Tuesday it would put extra verification processes and patient confirmation safeguards in place “over and above normal practice and electronic witness systems, to ensure patients and clinicians have every confidence in its processes”. “Whilst industry-leading electronic witness systems have and are being rolled out across Monash IVF, there remains instances and circumstances whereby manual witnessing is required,” the statement to the ASX said. Experts warned that the “troubling” bungle would shake confidence in the sector. “In reproductive care, trust is everything,” the University of South Australia bioethicist Dr Hilary Bowman-Smart said. after newsletter promotion “This mix-up – the second reported incident at Monash IVF – risks shaking confidence not just in one provider, but across the entire fertility sector.” Dr Evie Kendal, a senior lecturer in health promotion at Swinburne University of Technology, said with more human intervention into reproduction came the potential for human error. The news of the procedure going wrong would cause discomfort among other clients, she said. “Previous safeguards are clearly not up to the challenge of protecting clients against such incidents, and urgent ethical and policy guidance is needed to prevent such mistakes from occurring again,” Kendal said. The University of Melbourne associate professor Alex Polyakov, who is also a medical director of Genea Fertility, said while these events were “profoundly troubling”, with significant implications causing understandable concern, they were “extraordinarily uncommon”. Monash IVF also notified assisted reproductive technology regulators and its insurers.
