The hospital’s mistake: after a DNA test, a 29-year-old American woman discovered that she had another father

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In the US, a 29-year-old woman discovered she was not her father’s biological daughter after using a home DNA test kit. Jessica Harvey Galloway’s parents used reproductive technology to conceive a daughter in 1991. However, almost 30 years later, it turned out that the hospital mistakenly used another man’s sperm, Insider reports. “As a husband and father, it is extremely difficult for me to see my family suffer, and the source of the pain is something I will never be able to change. Realizing that your entire reality is not what you thought it was, is hard to put into words . It’s like waking up in someone else’s life,” said the girl’s real, but non-biological father, Mike Harvey. Read also: In Canada, 68-year-old men discovered that they were switched at birth. One has Ukrainian roots Mike and Janine Harvey Jessica Harvey Galloway and her husband received a DNA test kit for Christmas 2020 from their parents. This Christmas gift changed the life of the whole family forever. Jessica’s dad is of Italian descent, so she wanted to learn more about her Italian relatives before traveling to Europe. But tests showed that the 29-year-old woman has no Italian blood and is not genetically related to her father. Galloway’s biological father is instead a stranger whose sperm was mistakenly used for artificial insemination in 1991. Jessica Harvey Galloway In 1991, the girl’s parents, Mike and Janine Harvey, underwent intrauterine insemination at an Ohio hospital, treating Mike’s infertility. During this procedure, the partner’s sperm is injected into the woman’s uterus to increase the chances of pregnancy. The following year, a daughter was born to the couple. For 30 years, the family had no idea that Jessica was not Mike’s biological child. The parents say they trusted Summa Health System Hospital in Ohio and their doctor, Nicholas Spirtos. And Jessica was proud of her Italian origin and was confident in her health, because Mike’s relatives lived to be 90 years old and did not have cancer, diabetes or heart disease. But the Ancestry.com test results shocked the girl and destroyed her self-image. “We can no longer share our Italian family jokes or enjoy our little Italian get-togethers – it’s too painful for her. Her heritage has literally been taken away from her,” said Jessica’s mother Janine Harvey. Jessica with her dad as a child Jessica Galloway spent months using Ancestry.com, Facebook, the help of a geneticist and additional tests to find her biological father. It is also not known what happened to Mike Harvey’s sperm, or whether the clinic used it to conceive another child. The family filed a lawsuit against the hospital, accusing it of medical negligence, lack of informed consent, inadequate protection of genetic material and other violations. “Mike is my husband and Jessica is our daughter. No DNA test is going to change that. But we will hold Dr. Spirtos and Summa Health accountable for this,” Janine said. According to a law firm representing the family, neither the hospital nor Nicholas Spirtos have provided any answers, offered to run their own tests or asked to meet with the family. But Summa Health’s system director of corporate communications, Mike Bernstein, told Insider that the clinic “takes the allegation seriously.” Janine, Jessica, and Mike Harvey. Photos courtesy of Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise Unfortunately, this is not the only case of artificial insemination going wrong. Law firm Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise told reporters that it has handled hundreds of cases of wrongdoing by reproductive technology centers. These are various cases: from the incorrect placement of embryos to the use of one’s own sperm by doctors without the patient’s consent. We will remind, in Canada, two 68-year-old men found out that they were switched at birth in a maternity hospital. A man named Richard Beauvais believed all his life that he had half French, half Indian roots, and Eddie Ambrose was raised in a happy family of Ukrainian Catholics. However, it turned out that everything should have been the other way around. Read also: How artificial insemination takes place, how much it costs and what the risks are. Personal history and advice of an embryologist

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