Two L.A. couples gave birth to each others' babies after a mixup at their IVF clinic and spent four months raising children that weren't theirs, Alexander and Daphna Cardinale tell PEOPLE.
Alexander Cardinale He recalls standing in their Los Angeles hospital room in September 2019, confused by how the infant looked nothing like him or his wife.
"It was sort of a primal reaction," Alexander, 41, tells PEOPLE.
Three months later, the couple learned the shocking reason why: The fertility clinic where Alexander and Daphna had gone for in vitro fertilization (IVF) mistakenly implanted another couple's embryo into Daphna and transferred the Cardinales' embryo — made from Daphna's egg and Alexander's sperm — into the other woman.
Despite their misgivings, the couple — and their then-5-year-old daughter Olivia — instantly fell in love with the dark-haired, little baby, whose race Alexander and Daphna decline to identify out of respect for the child's biological parents.
Nearly two months later the family decided to take at-home DNA tests, which ultimately determined they were not biologically related to the infant.
"The room shrank and got really dizzy and everything just went numb," Mr Cardinale said, recalling the moment the DNA results came back.
"Instead of breastfeeding my own child, I breastfed and bonded with a child I was later forced to give away," Mrs Cardinale said at the news conference.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59216104
Alexander Cardinale He recalls standing in their Los Angeles hospital room in September 2019, confused by how the infant looked nothing like him or his wife.
"It was sort of a primal reaction," Alexander, 41, tells PEOPLE.
Three months later, the couple learned the shocking reason why: The fertility clinic where Alexander and Daphna had gone for in vitro fertilization (IVF) mistakenly implanted another couple's embryo into Daphna and transferred the Cardinales' embryo — made from Daphna's egg and Alexander's sperm — into the other woman.
Despite their misgivings, the couple — and their then-5-year-old daughter Olivia — instantly fell in love with the dark-haired, little baby, whose race Alexander and Daphna decline to identify out of respect for the child's biological parents.
Nearly two months later the family decided to take at-home DNA tests, which ultimately determined they were not biologically related to the infant.
"The room shrank and got really dizzy and everything just went numb," Mr Cardinale said, recalling the moment the DNA results came back.
"Instead of breastfeeding my own child, I breastfed and bonded with a child I was later forced to give away," Mrs Cardinale said at the news conference.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59216104
