Well let's hope that MM wasn't busy padding the pocketbook.
Posted on 07/10/2004 7:51:28 AM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
(Trumbull-WTNH, July 9, 2004 6:00 PM) _ It was the moment a Trumbull woman had dreamed about most of her life, but that dream has turned into a nightmare because of a medical mistake. She was impregnated with the wrong sperm.
For years Laura Howard and her fiance wanted to have a baby. She had been through the insemination process twice before. Each time it failed. In May she went to a Bridgeport fertility clinic to try again. This time she got pregnant, but she claims it's with the wrong man's sperm.
"I was just distraught and in shock."
It should be a happy time for 40-year-old Laura Howard of Trumbull. After five years of trying to have a child with her fiance, she is two months pregnant.
Instead, she is a lawyer's office with friends by her side for support. Howard claims something went terribly wrong with the insemination process at the Infertility Institute in Bridgeport and she's planning on suing her doctor.
"I had the procedure done and was told immediately following that the wrong sperm specimen was supplied. It was not that of my partner's."
And there was another shock for the African American couple. Howard says the sperm belonged to a white man.
According to Howard, fertility specialist Dr. Anthony Santomauro immediately tried to convince her to terminate the pregnancy, But Howard is keeping it. She feels it may be her last chance at motherhood.
"The race is unimportant and I want this child to be happy and I want this child to grow and feel complete and whole."
News Channel 8 tried to reach Dr. Santomauro for comment but he was not in today.
Laura Howard says the whole mixup is right there in her medical file.
"It says the site tech had advised the doctor that sperm sample given was the wrong sperm sample for the patient."
Howard worries about the medical history of the man she calls the unwitting donor. But because of privacy laws Howard says Dr. Santomauro has refused to release his health records so she plans on filing a lawsuit.
"I do not have a clue of their background. Does he have hepatitis? Does he have HIV?
Despite the troubling situation Laura is determined to move forward.
"I will go through with my pregnancy and I will have my child. And I will be a happy mother on my delivery day. But I really would like to know and need to know what I and this child are facing health-wise for the future."
The Department of Public Health says Dr. Anthony Santomauro has no complaints or actions on file against him.
Howard says they don't want or need to know the name of the man who's sperm was used. They just want his medical history. In order to obtain those records Howard's lawyer, Bruce Jacobs, told us they are planning to file a lawsuit next week.
Geez... I just lost my lunch on the keyboard! Thanks for NOTHING!
Medical privacy contracts. The sperm was supposed to come from that of the new mother's partner. The privacy of the mix-upped "donor" has to go through legal opening, before medical history of the donor can be revealed. I pray this couple and their new baby continue in strength, and joy. God has a plan.
Marriage doesn't mean anything anymore.
It DOES to God.
Yep. I hope you're right that there's a plan.
You can't be saying girls don't jump rope in the summer any more!
God is immaterial. God is a speedbump in the way of success. So she was trying to have children for five years. Why not adoption? Also, I know how these 'reproductive health' clinic operate preying on the fears/hopes of women who want to get pregnant. Blood isn't thicker than water. Adoption is cheaper than five years of faile fertility treatments.
hehehe that rhyme has been relegated to the dustheap of history with Grimms Fairy Tales,etc.
God is immaterial
Fraid Knot!!
That's what God says ;-)
You know, I had a white father and I turned out fine...having a white father isn't as bad as some people think.
A woman in line was giving them a perplexed look as they were checking out and my friend caught her eye. My friend sighed and said, "Honey, be careful when you go to those infertility clinics. You never know what you gonna get!" The poor woman almost died!
LOL well yeah and the 'toughest' thing the lady in this article would have to deal with is people being nosey :)
Nope it isn't as much as the liberals, civil rights groups and victicrats would have a lot of people believe.
I'm no professional, or even a sociologist, but I would wager that this couple will either A) never get married, or B) marry and eventually divorce within five years.
Just what I was thinking!
Well let's hope that MM wasn't busy padding the pocketbook.
Cyborg -- you just raised an excellent point. Yes, adoption is cheaper than going the infertility treatment route. HOWEVER!!! lol. All sentimentality aside, ISN'T DNA like, um, the key argument for bad behavior, obesity, gayness, ad nauseum? In adoption, therefore, when one adopts, the baby has "two questionable" gene pools. Via "fertility" treatment, the variables is reduced. Nonetheless, people don't seem realize that while nature plays a role, it can reach back several generations to draw upon.
Great ethics. Terminate a pregnancy? It's the BABY who gets terminated.
That's a good point about not knowing the history of the people that gave up the baby,etc. I don't doubt that's a factor in why some people do the treatments.
Ta-Ray-sa is African/American.
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