Family who conceived through IVF at Royal North Shore Hospital seeks DNA testing
A family says news of an IVF mix-up at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital has prompted it to seek DNA testing. (ABC: Kala Lampard)
In short:
A family is pursuing DNA testing after hearing about an IVF mix-up at the same Sydney fertility clinic used to conceive its baby.
One of the parents has spoken to the ABC, saying they felt unnerved by this week's story about Sasha Szafranski, who discovered she and her twin sister were not biologically related to their parents.
What's next?
The NSW Health department will offer support to the Szafranski family and others affected by the discovery.
A parent who conceived a child through Royal North Shore Hospital's fertility clinic in the 1990s, just months before an embryo mix-up at the same clinic, says their family is now planning to undertake DNA tests.
This week the ABC revealed a historic IVF error occurred at the Sydney clinic in April 1995, resulting in twin girls being born to a mother they are not related to.
The mistake was only discovered last year, when one of the twins, Sasha Szafranski, used a genealogy tracing website.
Now, another parent who conceived not long before that error has told the ABC that news of that serious mistake has been "unnerving" for them.
"We are all going to get a DNA test to make sure it was all good," they said of their family.
"We might go on ancestry.com and see what happens."
The former patient said they expected other families who conceived at the clinic during a similar time period to the embryo mix-up would likely do the same "just to be reassured".
While the parent is confident their child is biologically their own, they said news of the serious mistake had "rocked" them.
"It really is an inexcusable mistake," the parent said of the embryo mix-up.
The parent said they felt for Sasha Szafranski's mother, Penny Szafranski, who learnt last year that her twin daughters were not her biological children.
"It is appalling, it is just not fair for her," they said.
Scientist urges families to carefully consider DNA testing
Embryologist and fertility adviser Lucy Lines yesterday told the ABC she expected the rising popularity of genealogy websites like ancestry.com and the accessibility of DNA tests to lead to more discoveries of serious IVF mistakes.
"I think these things are going to come to light more and more unfortunately," Ms Lines said.
She said it was important to remember that serious errors were rare and safety standards and regulatory oversight had considerably improved since the 1990s in the IVF sector.
But for families who went through IVF in the industry's earlier years, Ms Lines said news of the mistake would be stressful.
Lucy Lines says serious IVF mistakes are rare but more of those that have happened will likely come to light. (ABC News: Stephen Opie)
She cautioned families not to rush into DNA testing.
"The first thing I think it means is you need to really, really deeply consider what information you might want and what the impact of having that information might be on your current life."
The scientist said she expected parents who used IVF in the 1990s and children conceived in that period were likely feeling "anxious and worried" after reading news of the IVF mix-up.
"I encourage people to reach out to their support networks, reach out to counselling, reach out to Lifeline if you need to, all of their services are there to support you," Ms Lines said.
Minister offers affected families help
In the past year, since the 1995 embryo mix-up was discovered, Sasha Szafranski and her twin sister and mother, as well as the biological family the twins are related to, have had no apologies or offers of support because of a dispute between NSW Health and a private company over who was responsible for the clinic at the time.
The hospital said its fertility clinic was taken over by a private company in 1994, before the mix-up occurred. That company North Shore A.R.T was later taken over by another company, which was acquired by IVF giant Virtus Health.
It also denies responsibility.
Today, NSW Health Minister Ryan Park offered support to the families for the first time.
Ryan Park urged families to accept the support being offered by the health department. (ABC News)
He said NSW Health Secretary Susan Pearce had been in contact with the family's local health district to make it clear that the health department was happy to offer support.
"It doesn't matter to Susan and I that it wasn't our clinic, to be perfectly frank; it means someone has been through a really difficult time and this is very traumatic," he said.
Referring to Sasha Szafranski, he said: "For this woman, this is a really, really challenging period and for that I want them to know and their families to know we are thinking of them, but more importantly we are happy to provide services and support for them."
He encouraged the families to take up the offer if they needed help.
"Should this person and their family want to take that offer up, I can assure you they will be met with open arms," he said.
The minister was also asked how confident he was that this embryo mix-up was an isolated mistake, given it was discovered accidentally.
"I don't think it was prevalent but I am never in the game of making predictions about things I don't know," he said.