A couple is suing a Florida fertility clinic alleging that it used the wrong sperm in their IVF treatments, resulting in a baby that genetically belongs to a different man.
According to lawyers for Natalie and Josh Strong, the couple suing Brown Fertility in Jacksonville, they went through “extensive and painful medical procedures and spent thousands of dollars, all in the hope of having a biological child, only to find out that Brown Facility used the wrong sperm.”
“We are devastated. I mean, this is gonna affect us for the rest of our lives. We gotta figure out how we’re gonna tell [our child] one day, and it took away the euphoria of having a baby,” Natalie Strong said at a press conference Thursday morning.
According to Strong, she and her husband found out the baby, Ava, had different genetic material the day after she gave birth because of a blood test, Natalie has type O-negative blood and Josh has type A-negative blood.
“Josh is a nurse, so immediately he said, ‘Well, how does that correlate?’ And no one could figure it out. We tested her blood type again, and then we even like, ‘Well, maybe one of our blood types is wrong’ from when he was in the military,” Strong said.” So we tested his again and mine, and everyone was correct. So there was absolutely no chance that Ava should be B positive with two negative blood types.”
The Strongs claim they have received no response from the fertility clinic, and they don’t know who the biological father of their child is. Ava is now 15 months old.
“You do have sadness and anger, and in the same day you also have joy and love,” Josh Strong said. “It’s just a lot to deal with, but we love her very much.”
NBC News has reached out to Brown Fertility for comment, but has not heard back.
