I gave birth to the wrong couple’s baby & spent 4 months raising her – she’s now finally reunited with her real parents
A COUPLE have been reunited with their biological daughter after she spent months being raised by another mum in a mix-up at an IVF clinic.
Daphna and her husband Alexander Cardinale spent fourth months raising a strangers child that was not theirs, according to a lawsuit filed.
The child is now back with her parents following the mix-up, which means the mother was pregnant with another couple’s baby.
The pair were immediately suspicious something was wrong after the baby she gave birth to in 2019 had a darker complexion than they do.
The couple though didn’t say anything at the time because they fell in love with the baby and trusted the doctors at the IVF clinic in California.
It was only some three months later that the couple learned the truth: the clinic where the couple had gone for treatment had mistakenly implanted another couple’s embryo into Daphna and put the Carinale’s embryo into the other woman, the Cardinales have claimed.
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Having found out what the situation was, Daphna, 43, then swapped babies with the other couple some four month after giving birth in January 2020.
“This is something that’s just changed who we are,” Daphna told People. “It’s still a daily struggle and will continue to be.”
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The Cardinales are now suing the fertility clinic and its owner – the Los Angeles-based California Center for Reproductive Health and Dr Eliran Mor – for medical malpractice, negligence and fraud, among other things.
The lawsuit demands a jury trial and seeks unspecified damages.
“People make mistakes,” says the couple’s attorney, Adam Wolf, “and in most industries those mistakes are fairly harmless. They can be corrected. With fertility clinics, those mistakes can have lifelong consequences. This has fundamentally changed the lives of Daphna and Alexander, as well as their two children.”
“If we hadn’t done IVF, I would’ve just chalked [the lack of resemblance] up to genetics,” Alexander said.
“She just looks how she looks. No big deal. But because we’d done IVF, my brain started going to the dark place.”
According to Daphna, the other couple – who did not want to be identified or comment publicly – were equally “blindsided and devastated” at the news.
After weeks of meeting up with the other couple and exchanging babies for brief visits, the four parents decided in mid-January 2020, the constant switching was too difficult for everyone and said it was time for the children to live with their biological parents, the Cardinales claimed.
Over almost two years since the couples got their children back – who live just 10 minutes away from each other – they have forged a strong bond with one another.
She just looks how she looks. No big deal. But because we’d done IVF, my brain started going to the dark place.
Alexander
“There’s no book for this,” said Alexander. “There’s no person to give you advice. So we ended up just sort of huddling together, the four of us, and it’s a blessing that we all are on the same page. We’ve spent every holiday together since then. We’ve spent every birthday together since then — and we’ve just kind of blended the families.”
Daphna said breaking the news about the mix-up to their older daughter, now seven, was “the hardest thing in my life.
“My heart breaks for her, perhaps the most,” she said.
She added that all four parents have since made an effort to stay in each other’s lives and ‘forge a larger family’.
Alexander said: “They were just as much in love with our biological daughter as we were with theirs.”
To read more on the story, check this article which speaks about couple’ who spent four months raising her before swapping her back after IVF clinic mix-up
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