Chapter 5 - The Embryo Was Not EH-17
This could become cheap embryo swap.
Need ground carefully.
The report was preliminary.
Not definitive.
Claire had ordered direct-to-consumer ancestry comparison after miscarriage using retained pathology? Hard legally. Better clinic performed POC genetic testing and compared only to carrier to distinguish maternal contamination. Later Claire's attorney got raw report showing source DNA mismatch to Emma sample? But how had Emma sample? Clinic had stored genomic data from embryo biopsy. We can make.
Austin Reproductive Partners had performed preimplantation genetic testing on EH-17 years earlier.
Biopsy profile existed.
Miscarriage tissue profile did not match EH-17.
That was huge.
Meaning:
the transferred embryo was not EH-17.
So what was transferred?
Audit of cryotank.
Same day two embryos thawed:
EH-17
and
BM-04.
BM-04 belonged to another couple:
Brianna and Marcus Lee.
Transfer rooms adjacent.
Could have swapped?
Clinic panicked.
But lab chain showed EH-17 straw was opened and transfer catheter labeled EH.
BM-04 separately transferred to Brianna that afternoon.
Brianna’s pregnancy resulted in healthy daughter.
Could both be wrong? Potentially.
Independent DNA testing needed.
Emma did not speculate.
Brianna and Marcus contacted under legal protections.
They agreed testing only to answer parentage.
Their daughter was genetically Brianna and Marcus.
So BM-04 went correctly.
What embryo went into Claire?
Lab inventory discovered one additional straw:
EH-12.
An embryo Emma and Ethan had previously classified nonviable after PGT due mosaic result.
They believed it was discarded two years earlier.
Yet archive showed:
EH-12 was retained for research consent pending disposal.
Could EH-12 have been transferred accidentally?
Genetic profile matched miscarriage tissue.
Yes.
That was the embryo.
So Claire carried Emma and Ethan’s embryo after all.
But not EH-17.
It was EH-12.
Still genetically theirs.
Why did Ethan’s name appear, and why clinic listed EH-17?
Because transfer record said EH-17.
Lab physically loaded EH-12.
A serious identification error.
Then where was EH-17?
Tank audit:
still present.
Storage invoices technically corresponded to EH-17 remaining.
Wait then the invoices weren't false. Great twist.
Emma’s last viable embryo was still frozen.
The clinic had transferred wrong embryo.
This changes grief.
The pregnancy that ended was Emma and Ethan’s EH-12 mosaic embryo, which had been set aside.
EH-17 remained.
Emma felt relief and horror.
Claire had miscarried an embryo that should never have been transferred.
The clinic’s two failures:
authorization issue
and embryo identification error.
How?
Embryologist Laura Price signed load.
She admitted.
She retrieved wrong cane position after storage map migration.
Barcodes should catch.
Scanner offline that morning.
Manual double-check?
Second checker:
Dr. Cole.
He signed based on printed label without reading etched straw code.
No intentional scheme.
Negligence.
Then Ethan asked:
“Why didn’t clinic tell us EH-17 still existed?”
Because they believed it had been used.
The tank audit only happened after Claire challenged.
Storage system listed EH-17 because billing database and lab transfer database diverged.
Ironically storage invoice was clue.
Then Emma looked at Ethan.
“Our embryo is still there.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t say our like nothing happened.”
He nodded.
Fair.
Then Claire whispered:
“I lost the wrong baby.”
Emma looked at her.
“No.”
Claire flinched.
“You lost a pregnancy.”
Claire’s eyes filled.
Emma continued:
“That embryo was still ours. But you’re not a container and it wasn’t ‘wrong’ because it wasn’t the one they meant.”
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For first time the women stood on same side of one fact:
The clinic had treated both of them as paperwork.
