Alexander and Daphna Cardinale, a Los Angeles couple, “had a real nightmare,” as they say, after discovering that a fertility clinic implanted Daphna with another couple’s embryo .
When their baby was born, they immediately suspected that something was happening , as his features did not resemble those of the family at all . After confirming their suspicions with a genetic test, the Cardinales and the other couple decided to exchange their babies.
This terrible mistake has affected them a lot psychologically, and now they have sued the fertility clinic for the damages caused.
Suspicions began after the baby was born
The Cardinales dreamed of having two children, and had been trying naturally for a long time to give their five-year-old daughter a baby brother. But they couldn’t, so they finally decided to go to an assisted reproduction clinic in Los Angeles.
The couple underwent in vitro fertilization using their own sperm and eggs, and on the second attempt Daphna became pregnant with the embryo that had been implanted .
In September 2019, the woman gave birth to her baby, but as soon as Alexander saw his daughter, he suspected that something was not right . The baby had very dark hair and skin, and was nothing like them or their little sister. The situation was so disconcerting that, according to the lawsuit, “Alexander took several steps away from the delivery table, leaning against the wall.”
For Daphna, on the other hand, it was not such an impact to see her baby for the first time, because although she affirms that it attracted her a lot of attention that he was so physically different from them, she felt a special bond after having carried her in her womb and given birth .
As the days went by, Alexander’s fears only grew , also unfounded by comments from family and friends about the baby’s physical appearance.
For this reason, two months after the birth they decided to request a DNA test that confirmed the suspicions: the girl that Daphna had conceived and given birth had no genetic load of either of them; that is, they had implanted the baby of another couple.
“The results of that test were shocking. I felt that the room was shrinking and I got dizzy . I stayed in that state for a long time” – they say in a YouTube video released by their lawyer.
According to the couple in this video, both had the hope that at least one of them was the biological father of the girl , but when they discovered that it was not, they began to consider what to do.
His biological daughter was being raised by another couple
The only concern of the couple was to know the fate of their embryo, so with the help of a lawyer they decided to investigate what had happened .
They quickly discovered that due to an error in the fertility clinic, her embryo had been implanted into another woman , who had given birth to another girl a week apart from Daphna.
Three months after the birth of their daughters, both couples began to maintain telephone contact and to send each other photographs of their babies; something Daphna describes as “heartbreaking” .
After these first contacts, the couples began to meet physically and after a few weeks they made the tough decision to legally exchange their daughters , so that the babies could be raised with their respective biological parents.
“The first time I met Zoe, my biological daughter, she was almost four months old. They were so big that all I could think about was that she had lost a year of her life . I had missed her pregnancy, bringing her into the world, her newborn phase and the first months of life “- Daphna laments.
The exchange took place in January 2020 , when the girls were four months old.
For her husband Alexander, a musician by profession, it has also been a very hard time. In fact, the singer recently opened up on his social networks explaining why he had been absent for so long.
But the hardest thing for the Cardinales has been explaining the situation to their eldest daughter , Olivia. And it is that the girl, only five years old, was deeply attached to her non-biological sister, whom she loved from the first moment, according to her parents.
“The biggest trauma for me is having to explain to a five-year-old girl that the baby she loves is not her sister.”
During the months that followed the exchange, both families had to resolve “complicated family dynamics” , in the words of the lawyer. For the Cardinales, the situation has caused symptoms of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder , as well as the other couple, who have decided to remain anonymous.
Despite everything, the two families have chosen to maintain contact, and although it is difficult, they try to see each other frequently and have even celebrated their children’s birthdays together.
Now, the Cardinales have sued the California Center for Reproductive Health (CCRH), as well as In VitroTech Labs, an embryology lab, for the mistake they made: “The horror of this situation cannot be underestimated,” they assert in their lawsuit.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that such a serious error has occurred in an in vitro reproduction process, and it is unimaginable to think of the pain that such a situation must entail for parents.
Photos | iStock
Via BBC, Spanish News, USA Today, Youtube
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