Page 16 - IAV Digital Magazine #544

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Ohio Family Sues Health Clinic For Allegedly Impregnating Mom With Stranger's Sperm
By Bradford Betz | Fox News
An Ohio couple and their daughter are suing a doctor and a healthcare system, claiming that the doc- tor wrongly inseminat- ed the wife with a stranger’s sperm, which the family says it did not discover until years later.
The couple, Mike and Jeanine Harvey, underwent an insemi- nation procedure in 1991 to fertilize the wife’s egg with the husband’s sperm, according to a press release from the fami- ly’s attorneys. Jeanine eventually became pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl, Jessica Harvey Galloway.
Leading up to Christmas 2020, Jessica and her hus- band asked her par- ents for Ancestry.com kits ahead of a trip to Europe with hopes of tracking down rela- tives while there. The
DNA-test results revealed a shocking discovery: the father who had raised her was not her biological father.
Further tests led Jessica to her biologi- cal dad who con- firmed that he and his wife were patients of the same fertility doc- tor as Jessica’s par- ents in 1991, accord- ing to the release.
At the time, the doc- tor, Dr. Nicholas J. Spirtos, was serving as the Chief of Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and In Vitro Fertilization/Embryo Transfer at Summa Akron City Hospital, the release said.
Spirtos is still listed as a working physician for Summa Health, which oversees Akron
City Hospital, accord- ing to an online direc- tory. He could not be reached for comment.
Mike Bernstein, a spokesman for Summa Health, told Fox News it is aware of the allegations against Spirtos.
"We take this allega- tion seriously and understand the impact this has on the
family," Bernstein said. "At this point, we have not met with the family or conducted testing of our own. Given the very limited information that we have and the amount of time that has passed, it remains our hope that attorneys representing the fami- ly will work with us to make that next step a priority."
"As a husband and a father, it’s extremely difficult to watch your family in pain," Mike Harvey said in a statement. "And the source of the pain is something that I’ll never be able to change. Learning that your entire reality isn’t what you believed it to be is hard to explain. It’s like wak- ing up in someone else’s life."
The family’s attorneys are calling for more regulation of the fertil- ity industry, likening its current state to the "wild west."
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine