SPERM MISTAKE

A MAN who had a son via IVF treatment has discovered that the child is not his biological offspring and now wants €1 million compensation. The situation came to light due to a series of coincidences which included repeated comments from relatives about how little the child, who was born in late 2021, resembled his father. Then a friend with medical knowledge noticed that the blood group of the baby was incompatible with those of

IVF baby is not biological offspring of father

By Simon Hunter

his parents.

This prompted the family to take a paternity test, the result of which showed that the woman was the child’s biological mother, but that the man was not the father.

“The result was communicat-

Close call for Ketamine kid

A 10-YEAR-OLD child ended up in intensive care after a hospital accidentally administered him a dose of the tranquiliser Ketamine that was meant for an adult weighing 130 kilos.

The incident happened after the boy was taken to the Universitario Hospital in Torrejon de Ardoz with a broken arm. Twenty minutes after he had been attended to by doctors, he was found in a strange position and was making odd noises.

Checks revealed that he had a blood saturation level of 40%, when a normal level is between 95 and 100%, and that he was having problems breathing. It was then that the medical team realised that he had been given a large dose of Ketamine in preparation for surgery. A dose of 250 milligrams was prepared instead of 50 milligrams. Fortunately, the full dose was not given to the patient.

ed to the family on February 27, 2023 and was devastating for them,” a lawsuit filed by pressure group The Patient’s Ombudsman states. The family is suing the health system as well as the Hospital Universitario Puerta del Mar in Cadiz. The regional health chief, Catalina Garcia, launched an investigation into what exactly happened. The lawyer acting for the family, which has not been identified, also raised fears about how far-reaching the error could be: i.e. another family undergoing IVF treatment may have had a baby using the man’s sperm. The group has opted to go public with the story in order to avoid such mistakes happening again. “It’s obvious that what happened cannot be sorted out, but perhaps if everyone hears about it, it won’t happen again,” a spokesman said.