The in-vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure that had gone wrong at the Thomson Medical Centre (TMC) in Singapore has been blamed on human error and a failure to stick to general procedures. While talking about the findings of an inquest into the botched procedure, the Minister of Health stated that the medical facility had failed to follow standard procedures, resulting in a mix-up of specimens.

The victims in this case were a Singaporean-Chinese woman and her Caucasian partner, who was a permanent resident of the country. The incident has led to the evaluation of procedures being followed by other fertilization centers in the country.

Apart from TMC, it was discovered by the Ministry of Health that two other centers were also failing to observe standard procedures. The authorities have pointed out three errors committed at TMC, which resulted in the mix-up.

The first error was that the embryologist was working simultaneously on two specimens at the same time on the same workstation. Apart from that, it was discovered that pipettes in the hospital were being reused instead of being discarded after being used once.

The third error was that there was no other operator to re-check whether the specimens were being transferred to the correct recipients.