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A family is reeling after learning that a seemingly routine artificial insemination procedure nearly 30 years ago was botched, they say, and the man that one woman calls dad is not actually her biological father.
In a lawuit filed Feb. 2, Jeanine and John “Mike” Harvey say they visited the IUF Center at Akron City Hospital, now known as Summa Health System, 30 years ago for help in conceiving a child.
"Our goal couldn't have been clearer," Jeanine Harvey said during a press conference on Feb. 2, 2022. "We wanted a child who is genetically related to both of us."
. . .
"Without our knowledge, Dr. Spirtos used a stranger's sperm, instead of my husband's," Jeanine added. "I got pregnant and our daughter Jessica was born in 1992. Harvey girls were very rare in the family, so we were so excited. I screamed and scared the doctors half to death when she was born."
. . .
Thirty years passed, and the family said they had no reason to believe that their daughter, Jessica, was not Mike's biological daughter. It wasn't until Jessica and her husband asked for a DNA test for Christmas in 2020, ahead of a trip to Europe, that they realized the unimaginable had happened.
Terrible error on the IVF clinic's part (I just hope to God that it wasn't intentional).
I'm going through the IVF and surrogacy (the relevancy of which will be clearer later) process now. I believe that such mistakes are much more likely for traditional surrogacy, where the carrier is the biological mother married/partnered with the sperm donor. I'd imagine that, for such cases, pre/post-birth DNA tests aren't being conducted, or at least weren't regularly being conducted back then. For the gestational surrogacy process where the carrier is not genetically related to the child (or at least not the child's biological mother), it seems like standard practice (today, at least) for DNA testing to be conducted prior to the child being handed over to his/her parent(s).
This case is a mess all the same. Hopefully, the parents don't love their daughter any less than they do. Hopefully, the same is true for the daughter's feelings toward her parents.
It does sound like a mess...but human error happens. We've heard of stories where hospitals accidentally switched babies on mothers who had just given birth to them as well. This incident you're referring to was 30 years ago when IVF/insemination wasn't as common as it is now. Hopefully clinics have better procedures in place...but I'm sure there is still room for human error somewhere.
It does sound like a mess...but human error happens. We've heard of stories where hospitals accidentally switched babies on mothers who had just given birth to them as well. This incident you're referring to was 30 years ago when IVF/insemination wasn't as common as it is now. Hopefully clinics have better procedures in place...but I'm sure there is still room for human error somewhere.
I agree. I first heard of the story on the Elliot in the Morning radio show today. Elliot was making it seem like the father in the story was on the "she's no longer my daughter" line of attack during his press conferences. I hope that isn't the case. Clearly biological bonds are important to many, but I hope that the lack of a biological bond isn't enough to ruin 30 years of memories.
To your other point, yes, I don't hear as many of these cases for more recent IVF procedures, so I hope that's a sign of better procedures in place now.
That is sad if the dad is going to treat the daughter as if she is no longer his. He has raised her so she is his daughter still. I would imagine it's shocking to first find out that someone you thought was 'blood' related to you isn't actually.
Terrible error on the IVF clinic's part (I just hope to God that it wasn't intentional).
I'm going through the IVF and surrogacy (the relevancy of which will be clearer later) process now. I believe that such mistakes are much more likely for traditional surrogacy, where the carrier is the biological mother married/partnered with the sperm donor. I'd imagine that, for such cases, pre/post-birth DNA tests aren't being conducted, or at least weren't regularly being conducted back then. For the gestational surrogacy process where the carrier is not genetically related to the child (or at least not the child's biological mother), it seems like standard practice (today, at least) for DNA testing to be conducted prior to the child being handed over to his/her parent(s).
This case is a mess all the same. Hopefully, the parents don't love their daughter any less than they do. Hopefully, the same is true for the daughter's feelings toward her parents.
I've done my ancestry DNA 6 years ago, uploaded it for free to my heritage, FTDNA, and a public DNA database called GEDmatch. I did 23 and me (waste of $150 sale price) too almost 2 years ago. I run DNA of my hub, two kids, their paternal grandmothers, my 2 grand kids, my deceased dad's brother and my maternal 1st cousin, doing male specific Y-DNA on my uncle, so you could say I'm pretty into DNA, ethnicity and matching DNA relatives.
So far, no surprises with any of my kits but that is not the case for others. I go to various Facebook groups, DNA detectives is one where people who get this surprise go to get free search angel help to figure out their parent with their DNA matches.
There's a kid from Lithuania who just found out his mother was inseminated by a medical student and not the donor she picked, also about 30 years ago. He is not the only one, just the most recent. DNA detectives moves so fast because it is very busy due to unknown paternity or even unknown that they were adopted. Even the Facebook groups for each DNA company has posts on why don't I match my dad's brother on -insert DNA test name?
Unless you've found out that your father was not or may not be your father, no one can know how traumatic it is. I do know, because 2/6 at 7:30pm, I also did DNA test with my father 2 hours before he died. Thankfully he was confirmed to be my father but my family accused me of making the results on my computer. Ancestry DNA wasn't available then. I haven't spoken to anyone in 15 years due to it. I'm getting a laugh after one accusing sibling tested at 23 and me and ancestry, uploading to my heritage can now see we are without a doubt related by both parents, 15 years after she sent me a "sorry for the loss of your step father". BTW, I was my dad's favorite even though he knew she cheated on him, so they're jealous.
Since you're going through IVF now, you really need to make sure that the egg and sperm are from who they're supposed to be from. Can it be DNA tested before implanted? Fact is, it still happens today, two women had their samples mixed up, thankfully they weren't the same ethnicity, when the white couples baby started getting darker skin, they decided to do the DNA test. Neither were related to her. It was traumatic on both babies and parents to then have to get used to their own baby, try to bond with it when they bonded with someone else's baby. It's mentioned in the article you shared, there is also a thread here. I don't recall if it was one you commented in.
The last thing you want is to find out that the child you worked so hard for is not biologically what you thought. Mistakes happen, even these days, I'll say even more so due to COVID with shortages of staff.
Unfortunately, we don't know if her father who raised her actually fathered any kids, the bio father and his ex-wife were not successful with IVF. Possible that her father who raised her had his mixed with the ex-wifes egg? Wonder if she will also sue? Also wonder if they have any fertilized eggs left.
Last edited by Roselvr; 02-04-2022 at 02:05 AM..
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