Couple Sue Hospital For IVF Mixup

A couple who has been told that the dad is not actually his son’s biological father after a hospital mixed up his sperm with someone else’s have filed a EUR 1 million lawsuit.

The family, who has not been named but who is from Andalucia, has slammed the Puerta del Mar Hospital in Cadiz over the handling error, according to local media.

The family grew suspicious of February 2023, two years after the mother became pregnant thanks to in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment.

The couple’s family had begun saying that the son did not look like his father, which raised suspicions.

A few weeks ago, a friend of the family with a medical background reportedly managed to access the child’s birth certificate, which showed that it had an incompatible blood group with his father’s.

Picture shows samples removed from freezer, undated. Due to a mistake in the assisted fertilization process a couple complained that the father is not the biological father in Cadiz, Spain. (Newsflash)

The family filed a complaint with the hospital, saying that the mistake had caused “very serious and irreparable moral damage”.

The family has since filed a lawsuit for EUR 1 million against the hospital.

Local media quote the lawsuit as saying that the error has destroyed the father’s dream of having a biological child with his wife, saying that the ordeal will also have an “incalculable added emotional and personal impact” on the family in the future.

The mother is also said to be experiencing “anguish” after carrying a stranger’s child inside her instead of her husband’s.

Ignacio Martínez, a lawyer in the proceedings and a lawyer attached to the Patient Ombudsman, has said that the case is a first but added that there could be more like it.

The Ministry of Health, in charge of the hospital, has not yet commented and is waiting for the outcome of a number of procedures.

The investigation is ongoing.