8 mon pregnant Mom must give up IVF baby-docs gave her the wrong embryos

**LynnieD** · September 21st, 2009, 08:08 PM

A pregnant mother will have to give birth to another couple's baby after a blunder by an IVF clinic.
Carolyn Savage had the wrong embryos implanted into her and will have to give the boy up to his biological parents as soon as he is born.
Yesterday Mrs Savage, 40, who was expecting her fourth child with husband Sean, said: 'The hardest part is going to be the delivery. I remember communicating with the [unnamed] mother of this child as to what I was envisioning and hoping for.

'I said, "We want a moment to say hello, and goodbye".
'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 it as a gift for this family that eight months ago we didn't know.
'I think that is the only way we'll get through it.'
Mrs Savage, from Ohio in the U.S., is 35 weeks pregnant and expecting in a fortnight. The couple already have two sons aged 15 and 12 and a daughter, born with the help of IVF, who is 18 months.

Mrs 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
Mrs Savage learned she was pregnant with a boy in February after deciding to try again with the last of her frozen embryos.
They learned about the mix-up after Mr Savage received a phone call at work and returned home to tell his wife.
She said: 'I was upstairs in my bedroom and he came to the door and said "I have some really bad news".

The couple are now hoping to give their remaining embryos to another carrier
'You're pregnant,' he told her. 'But they transferred the wrong embryo.'
Mrs Savage said she just kept repeating: 'You're joking.'

But when she looked at her husband 'he was as white as a sheet'.
The couple decided not to have an abortion because of their religious beliefs, and have met the other couple and arranged a handover.
Mrs Savage added: 'We will wonder about this child every day for the rest of our lives.
'We have hopes for him, but they are his parents and we'll defer to their judgment on when and if they ever tell him what happened and any contact that's afforded us.
'We just want to know he's healthy and happy.'
Lawyers for the Savages are working to ensure that the fertility clinic that made the error 'will accept full responsibility for the consequences

Read more: Eight months pregnant mother must give up her IVF baby after doctors gave her the wrong embryos | Mail Online

Eight months pregnant mother must give up her IVF baby after doctors gave her the wrong embryos | Mail Online

Ok, I saw this couple on The Today Show this morning and it IS sad. It is....

**chartreuse** · September 21st, 2009, 08:11 PM

how incredibly heartbreaking. i don't even know how you would recover from something so tragic...that poor woman.

*DIVA! · September 21st, 2009, 08:15 PM

Over my cold dead body...just saying.

**Nevan** · September 21st, 2009, 08:46 PM

OMG. I just .... I don't know what I would do in that situation. Having been pregnant and given birth (and dealing with infertility for 8 years), I don't think I could have gone through with the pregnancy. I just don't know. I have to say that their attitude is admirable ... I'm just not sure they're being realistic to themselves. Especially the mother.

What an awful, awful thing. She's 40, so it was probably a last ditch effort to have their last child. That IVF clinic should have SERIOUSLY MAJOR repercussions for such a colossal screw up.

Where did this happen?

**cupcake** · September 21st, 2009, 08:52 PM

I could barely get through their interview without my eyes welling up, they were having a hard time too.
They are amazing people

**LynnieD** · September 21st, 2009, 08:56 PM

Originally Posted by Nevan

OMG. I just .... I don't know what I would do in that situation. Having been pregnant and given birth (and dealing with infertility for 8 years), I don't think I could have gone through with the pregnancy. I just don't know. I have to say that their attitude is admirable ... I'm just not sure they're being realistic to themselves. Especially the mother.

What an awful, awful thing. She's 40, so it was probably a last ditch effort to have their last child. That IVF clinic should have SERIOUSLY MAJOR repercussions for such a colossal screw up.

Where did this happen?

She actually CANNOT have more kids after this REGARDLESS (this was discussed on The Today Show this morning) though I am unsure as to why. HOWEVER, they are looking into having the remaining embroys and having a surrogate carry them....if it works out.

**Nevan** · September 21st, 2009, 09:01 PM

Wow. I wonder if the other parents would reciprocate and be their surrogate. In a perfect world ....

**Nevan** · September 21st, 2009, 09:03 PM

So, it was in the US then?

I only say that because of the total screw up that Octomom was and how everyone (legislatures included) was all up in arms about how fertility clinics need to be more regulated, blah, blah, blah .... and as far as I know, nothing ever happened.

**KrisNine** · September 21st, 2009, 09:34 PM

How sad...geez.

**Aella** · September 22nd, 2009, 05:27 AM

She should have aborted. She's essentially being used as a living incubator for another woman.

**A*O** · September 22nd, 2009, 05:49 AM

If you are carrying a healthy baby after years of infertility then even if you know the child isn't biologically yours it would be very, very difficult to abort it.

This kind of thing can happen in the best regulated clinic and is yet another example of why I'm a little uneasy about how IVF is heralded as the answer to everyone's prayers. When things go right it's a wonderful thing, but when things go wrong like this it's a moral, emotional and ethical nightmare for everyone involved and I don't think enough real thought has been put into how to deal with these situations which will inevitably happen from time to time.

**Chilly Willy** · September 22nd, 2009, 05:54 AM

^^ Especially if time is running out.

This is straight from Private Practice.

**hotmommy** · September 22nd, 2009, 09:48 AM

She is WILLINGLY giving the baby to the bio parents...no one is FORCING her!!! check out her interview on cnn.com. She and her husband said that moments after learning about the mistake, they decided to give the child to the bio parents.

**fgg** · September 22nd, 2009, 09:57 AM

it is probably easier to 'willingly' give the baby up than to go through the legal system and probably lose the baby anyway. what claim does she have over the baby? i wonder if the other family would have filed an injunction or something if she tried to abort the baby seeing as how it is not her child. seems like uncharted legal waters.

i really hope this family ends up having a baby with one of their remaining embryos via a gestational surrogate. and the clinic should be paying through the nose for this massive screw up.

**sluce** · September 22nd, 2009, 10:19 AM

They have already signed an agreement with a gestational carrier who will have their 5 remaining embryos implanted.

They said they were given a choice to terminate the pregnancy or carry to term for the other family. It was clear to them from the start that they could not keep the baby if they continued with the pregnancy. They said they decided it was a gift they could give the other couple, met them and proceeded. I have a feeling these families will stay in touch for years to come.

It is a horrible situation but the adults involved have made the best decisions for them.