Heartbroken NYC woman who had the WRONG embryos implanted and was forced to give twin boys to biological California parents settles lawsuit with fertility clinic after harrowing mishap

A first-time mother who carried twins before being forced to give them up has settled with the fertility clinic that 'unbelievably' implanted her with the embryos of two other women.

The Korean-American couple from New York City only discovered the terrible confusion in the delivery room when the twin girls they were expecting turned out to be white boys.

The couple named YZ and AP in the lawsuits had struggled to conceive for years before spending $100,000 at the Cha Fertility Clinic in Southern California.

But just six weeks after they became parents, a court ordered them to hand over the babies they were so looking forward to.

And it left them with “lasting emotional injuries from which they will not recover,” their lawsuit alleged.

“They may never know what happened to their embryos, nor whether the currently cryopreserved embryos are genetically linked to them,” it added.

Custody of one of the boys was awarded to genetic mother Anni Manukyan and her husband Ashot, who also sued the clinic.

Anni and the other boy's genetic mother had all been at the clinic on the same day in August 2018 when AP had their embryos implanted, and Anni herself had a fourth couple's embryo accidentally implanted.

That pregnancy failed and the couple were completely unaware that they had become parents until they received a call from the clinic in March 2019 asking them to take a DNA test.

AP, meanwhile, had been told to ignore the scan results, which indicated the girls she was expecting were in fact boys, while clinic co-owner Joshua Berger told her his wife had seen the same abnormality during pregnancy .

Anni opened up about her heartbreak and the trauma of fighting the boy's birth mother in court after gaining custody of the little boy she named Alec.

“They came in and were crying, and I saw them crying and I started crying,” she recalled.

'My husband tried to hold me. Even the guard was crying.”

AP had written to the court: 'I kiss his feet every day. I give him a bath. I breastfed him.

“We are their real parents and we are the ones who want to be with him. We love them, they are ours and they are twins, they should not be separated.

'They cuddle with each other, they sleep with each other every night. How can you separate them?'

Anni claimed she broke down as the judge handed down his verdict, saying: 'DNA is DNA and genetics plays a big role in everything, so the baby belongs to Anni and Ashot.'

While they waited for the handover, a psychiatrist told the Manukyans to hand over their pillowcases so their son could get used to their smell, and the recordings of Anni reading.

“My voice was shaking as I did it,” Anni said.

'It was just heartbreaking. My husband and I wondered what if the pillows we were sleeping on, what if the smell wasn't enough? Just to be sure, we hugged the pillowcases for a while.'

Finally, the day came when baby Alec was handed over in her New York hotel lobby.

“They said, 'We're sorry, we're so sorry,'” Anni said.

“We should have let you come sooner to take him, it's just because we love them. We wanted to care for them as if they were our own. We love them'.

'There was no tension in the room at all. It felt like we were friends… It was just love, because we all have love for the same child.”

When the couple handed over the baby in May, they also presented a series of gifts for the Manukyans, including gold bracelets, one in honor of the Year of the Pig and another with a crown; and a ring decorated with little baby shoes.

“I'd like you to give this to him so you know it's mine,” AP told Anni.

A week after giving Anni and Ashot their baby, AP and YZ gave up Alec's “twin brother” to his biological family.

AP and YZ won a $200,000 settlement against clinic co-owner Joshua Berger in October and have now settled for an undisclosed amount against the clinic.

In their lawsuit, they admitted that they “couldn't find the courage or the means to tell others about their devastating loss.”

Anni, who settled her case against the clinic in 2019, said she prays every day for the woman who gave birth to her son.

“She carried my child for nine months, she fed him, she took care of him, she changed his diapers. It could have ended differently.

'I pray for her every day, she has been a victim of this just as much as I have.

'She's a lovely lady. She raised my baby inside her and after birth.”

Lawyer Adam Wolf, who represented the Manukyans, said: “This incredible series of events demonstrates CHA's shocking incompetence.

“While I have handled hundreds of cases of misconduct at fertility centers, this tragedy at CHA is one of the most egregious I have ever seen.

'Anni and Ashot put all their faith and trust in CHA. In return, CHA gave Anni and Ashot lies, excuses and heartbreak.

“It's reasonable to assume that there are many more tragedies happening in fertility clinics than we know.”