The wrong embryos were implanted in two women in an IVF mix-up that traumatised three different patients, an NHS trust admitted yesterday.
The mistake, which happened in April at the assisted conception unit at St George's, south London, occurred after the "good" embryos from one woman were implanted in a second, and her embryos were then implanted in a third.
The error, which is likely to alarm the 27,000 couples who undergo IVF in Britain each year, was spotted within 24 hours but led to the two impregnated women being given a termination with their embryos physically flushed out.
The ordeal is understood to have left them traumatised. One has decided not to continue with IVF treatment, though the other two are now successfully pregnant.
The blunders are understood to have occurred after the doctor concerned, Kamal Ojha, failed to check the patient's name corresponded to that on the dish containing the embryo, while the embryologist, Scott Lamond, failed to double-check the embryo's identity with a fellow embryologist. Despite the mistakes - a breach of the trust's guidelines approved by the human fertilisation and embryology authority (HFEA) - Dr Ojha, a research fellow at the time, has been promoted, becoming a locum consultant in the hospital's obstetrics and gynaecology department, while Mr Lamond remains in charge of the semen, eggs and embryos relating to 700 women being treated at the hospital. Neither has been disciplined.
Dr Geeta Nargund, the director of the unit, and the consultant who contacted the HFEA last April to relay the mistake and prompt an inquiry, was suspended from her post last Thursday.
Professor Paul Jones, the hospital's medical director, said the suspension was unrelated to the incident and the recent decision, by St George's healthcare trust, to close the unit. But her supporters said she was being made to carry the can and has been treated "barbarically."
"This was a complete break with protocol," said Professor Stuart Campbell, the retired head of obstetrics and gynaecology at St George's medical school, who established the unit with Dr Nargund. "This is a fundamental error."
The errors prompted calls for a national system of protocols. "It's not the first time this has happened, and I think the HFEA should set out a protocol to prevent it happening again," said Professor Ian Craft, director of the London Fertility Clinic.
Prof Jones said the errors were made due to time pressures imposed by a "chaotically managed" department.
The error follows the revelation in July that a white couple had black twins after an IVF mix-up.
