On Nova 100 this morning Melbourne fertility specialist Dr Lynn Burmeister joined Jase & Lauren to talk about a second embryo mix-up at Monash IVF. As Lynn was discussing how such errors could occur and what it could mean for the future of IVF in Australia, Jase Hawkins shared that he and his wife Lou conceived their youngest son Archie via Monash IVF and still have embryos stored with the provider.
Lauren: Stories like this, it must just make your blood boil.
Lynn: Yeah, so it’s quite horrific seeing these stories come out two months ago, where we saw the the news about the wrong embryo putting being put back into someone who’s now got a 17 month old baby that’s not genetically theirs. And we still don’t know what’s going to happen with that baby. It’s just horrific to hear that this has happened when we have such futuristic technology available to us that something like this could actually happen in a big IVF company like Monash.
Lauren: Lynn, do you think that, look, there’s two stories that have come out, and they’ve come out very publicly through the Herald Sun. Do you think if these media investigations weren’t happening, there would be other things we don’t know about?… Cause it’s frightening.
Lynn: No, no, these things aren’t common, so we have to report to our regulators… I would say the processes must have broken down in that company for that to happen. So when we collect eggs and sperm and embryos in our clinic, they’re all monitored by two witnesses, so two scientists, and also we have a RI witness system, which is an electronic witness system that costs us more money to install, but it gives us the benefit of tracking those embryos and those eggs and sperm right through their entry into the lab, so they’re sort of barcoded right through, so if a scientist accidently gets the wrong sperm and tries to put it with a different egg, the alarm bells will ring and the scientists won’t be able continue their work.
Jase: I hadn’t told you guys this yet, but we actually had Archie through IVF, through this particular company… So yesterday afternoon, when Lou was reading the story, you know. And like Archie’s three, and look, he’s a dead set ringer for his brother, Felix, you know. And so we’re pretty sure we’re good there. But as someone who’s gone through it, like it was such a, such a personal experience. And whatever company you go through for something like there’s that trust that you have. And just yesterday was just that weird, just that icky feeling in your guts going.
Lauren: It’s overwhelming enough, right? And there would be a lot of people who have dealt with with Monash IVF that will be feeling very nervous.
Jase: We’ve still got embryos in the freezer there, and you know, not that we’re planning to have other kids, but when we’re going through it with Archie, you know, just…
Lauren: But also, I’ve got lots of friends who have frozen embryos that aren’t sure if they’ll use them, but they’re just not willing to take them off ice.
Jase: But then part of me last night was like, and I’m not trying to be dramatic, but I’m like, I don’t trust them sitting in that freezer at the moment…. It just made me think last night, well, I think we need to speed up that conversation about what we want to do with them, because at the moment, I don’t trust the current situation.
Lauren: Yeah. Well, there would be a lot of people possibly feeling the same, but hopefully this is investigated properly and dealt with accordingly. Because it’s just not enough.
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