Georgia woman says she’ll “never fully recover” after IVF mix-up leads to her losing custody of 5-month-old baby

A woman who gave birth to a baby boy that wasn’t hers due to an embryo transfer mix-up filed a lawsuit Tuesday against a fertility clinic in Georgia after she was forced to give up the 5-month-old infant.

Krystena Murray, a White woman, realized something went wrong at the Coastal Fertility Specialists clinic in May 2023 when she delivered a baby that did not match the appearance of the sperm donor she had chosen who looked similar to her with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. 

Instead, on Dec. 29, 2023, she delivered a baby who was Black. Murray said she didn’t know what to do but take care of the baby, including breast-feeding him, taking him to doctor’s appointments and cuddling him throughout the day. 

But the following months were full of anxiety for the new mom, attorney Adam Wolf said. Murray never posted photos of the child online or allowed her friends and family to see him. She eventually purchased an at-home DNA kit, and the test results she received in late January 2024 confirmed what she already knew, according to the complaint against Dr. Jeffrey Gray and Coastal Fertility.

On Feb. 5, 2024, Murray reached out to the fertility clinic who later informed the biological parents of the baby about what happened, according to the complaint. The baby boy was 3 months old when the couple, who lived in another state, sued Murray for custody.

“To carry a baby, fall in love with him, deliver him, and build the uniquely special bond between mother and baby, all to have him taken away. I’ll never fully recover from this,” Murray said through her attorney.

Murray voluntarily gave up custody of the boy in May 2024 after her family-law counsel concluded that she was going to lose the custody battle, the complaint said. She said she hasn’t seen the baby since. Murray is seeking a jury trial, $75,000 in judgment and other damages, according to the lawsuit.

In a statement to CBS News, Coastal Fertility Specialists acknowledged the mistake and apologized for the distress that was caused.

“This was an isolated event with no further patients affected. The same day this error was discovered we immediately conducted an in-depth review and put additional safeguards in place to further protect patients and to ensure that such an incident does not happen again,” the statement read in part.

As the popularity of fertility treatments like IVF continue to rise across the U.S. — up 33% from 2018 to 2023, according to a Pew Research Center survey — lawsuits like Murray’s also began to emerge.

In New York, a couple said a fertility center transferred their embryo to another customer, a complete stranger, who then gave birth to their son, along with another couple’s baby. In 2023, a couple in Texas sued a fertility clinic for using the wrong sperm in an IVF procedure. In California, a same-sex couple sued a fertilization clinic, claiming that their hopes of having a son were hampered after a female embryo was wrongly implanted in their surrogate.