As Carolyn Savage, who underwent in vitro fertilization (IVF) lay in bed waiting for the results of her pregnancy test, kept waiting till finally her husband Sean got a call around 4:00 p. m. t work, with the doctor saying though Carolyn was pregnant, she was pregnant with the wrong embryos.

In a tragic mix-up, Carolyn has had another couple’s embryos implanted in her uterus, becoming an unwitting surrogate for strangers at age 39, with chances of having a child naturally after this one waning. A nightmare, as after several failed attempts and painful miscarriages, she had finally become pregnant.

The pre-mature birth of their second child due to Carolyn developing life-threatening complications saw the couple finding it increasingly difficult to conceive another child, which is why they turned to IVF. Eventually, Carolyn became pregnant and had their third child, even though it was a difficult pregnancy and pre-mature birth.

Refusing to let the remaining five embryos left unused to languish at the clinic, they thought they three of their own embryos had been implanted by the fertility clinic.

Though tragic, Dr. David Adamson, a reproductive endocrinologist and ex-president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), cases like these are exceedingly rare, as there are a series of strong protocol recommendations for in vitro procedures. For example, all embryos are accurately labeled with the patient’s name and Social Security number, including colour-coding samples uniquely to avoid confusion.

Making a difficult decision, the Savages have decided not to abort the baby, and when he is born, they will relinquish him to his natural DNA parents.

They have not released the name of the clinic where they underwent the IVF procedure, but have met the baby’s DNA parents, with the DNA-related mother having come along for one doctor’s appointment.