Hospital accidentally implants woman with wrong fertilized egg

A hospital in the southern city of Ashkelon confused the eggs of two women who were receiving in-vitro fertilization treatment and accidentally implanted the wrong fertilized egg into one of them.

The Barzilai Medical Center said Thursday the mistake was discovered almost “immediately” and that both the woman from whom the egg was taken and the woman who had it implanted were notified at once.

After discovering the mistake, doctors performed a “cleansing procedure,” to ensure the woman did not become pregnant.

An initial investigation found that the medical team likely did not carry out all the necessary checks in accordance with protocol and did not compare the details between the women and their eggs, Hebrew media reports said.

Doctor Chezi Levy, the head of Barzilai Medical Center, told the Yedioth Ahronoth daily that a full report would be published as soon as the investigation was completed. “Mistakes happen, and we will ensure that this does not occur again,” he said.

Health Ministry officials told Yedioth that they were treating the incident with the utmost gravity and that “there will be a need for a comprehensive investigation in order to understand how an incident like this could happen despite all the control mechanisms” in place.