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Parents whose baby was born to Queens couple after IVF flub break silence, sue fertility clinic

The New York Daily News - 7/10/2019

Jul. 10--California couple Anni and Ashot Manukyan say they were delivered into a nightmare when a horrific in vitro fertilization mix-up led to the implantation of their embryo in a complete stranger living in Queens.

The Flushing woman later gave birth to their son in New York on March 31 alongside another baby boy from yet another pair of strangers.

No one comprehended the monumental mistake until the shocked Queens woman saw the baby boys and realized they didn't match her Asian ethnicity or the two female embryos she created with her husband and consented to having implanted.

The parents from Glendale, Calif., said Wednesday they're now suing CHA Fertility Center in Los Angeles over the harrowing ordeal.

"We relied on CHA to help us build a family and, instead, they robbed us of the opportunity to bring our own son into this world," Anni said in a statement ahead of a press conference.

"CHA put three families through a living hell, and our lives will never be the same," Ashot added.

The couple said the stunning blunder meant they had to suffer the trauma of separation from their son for his first few months while they were forced to go to court to gain custody from the New York couple.

Anni also underwent the authorized implantation of sperm and eggs from a different pair of complete strangers in her body, and the couple further suffered the "destruction or loss" of an additional fertilized embryo, they claim.

This case is believed to be the first time in U.S. history that a family has had to go to court to recover their offspring from a mother who unwittingly bore a child as a result of a fertility center error, their lawyer Adam Wolf of the law firm Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane said.

Unlike previous embryo loss or destruction cases, the Glendale couple "was ensnared by CHA in an elaborate three-family cascade of errors that resulted in the New York woman bearing two children of different ethnicities from her own," the law firm said in a statement.

The Flushing couple filed a separate medical malpractice and negligence lawsuit against CHA as well as Dr. Joshua Berger and Dr. Simon Hong in federal court in Brooklyn last week.

In their 29-page complaint, the Queens couple said they married in August 2012 and immediately "desired to conceive, deliver and raise children of their own."

When attempts to conceive through natural measures and artificial insemination failed, they learned about CHA Fertility and spent more than $100,000 on the company's services after meeting with Dr. Berger and Dr. Hong on Jan. 9, 2018, they said.

In July 2018, the couple had one female embryo transferred, but it did not result in a pregnancy.

A month later, the couple tried again with what they thought were two more of their female embryos. In September, the wife learned she was pregnant.

"Plaintiffs were ecstatic to learn that after years of trying to conceive, they had success and were pregnant with twins," their New York lawsuit states.

At their three and five-month sonograms, the Queens couple were advised they appeared to be carrying boys, leading to considerable confusion. But Dr. Berger and Dr. Hong dismissed the sonogram results as inconclusive, saying they were "not a definitive test," the lawsuit claims.

Dr. Berger even regaled the couple with a story of how his own wife was told she was having a boy but ultimately had a girl.

The Flushing woman now suing CHA delivered two boys on March 31 via caesarean, "neither of which was of Asian descent," like the couple, their lawsuit states.

"Plaintiffs were shocked to see that the babies they were told were formed using both of their genetic material did not appear to be," the paperwork says.

Genetic testing ultimately confirmed the two babies were not related to the couple and indeed were not related to each other.

"Unbeknownst to plaintiffs at the time, defendants investigated the matter and contacted two other couples who went for treatment at CHA Fertility," the lawsuit claims.

"As a result, plaintiffs were required to relinquish custody of Baby A and Baby B, thus suffering the loss of two children," it says. "Plaintiffs have suffered significant and permanent emotional injuries for which they will not recover."

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