Coastal Fertility Lawsuit: Wrong Embryo, Custody Loss, Mediation

The Coastal Fertility lawsuit was filed by Krystena Murray, a 38-year-old woman from Savannah, Georgia, who says Coastal Fertility Specialists transferred another couple’s embryo into her uterus during an IVF procedure in May 2023. She carried the pregnancy to term, gave birth to a baby boy who was not biologically hers, raised him for five months, and then surrendered him to his biological parents after a custody suit. Her complaint against the clinic and its embryology laboratory director, Dr. Jeffrey Gray, is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia and is now headed to mediation.¹

What Went Wrong at the Clinic

Murray came to Coastal Fertility Specialists in late 2022 or early 2023 hoping to conceive with a sperm donor. She chose a white donor with dirty blond hair and blue eyes. After egg retrieval and a failed first transfer, a second transfer in May 2023 resulted in pregnancy.²

She gave birth on December 29, 2023. In the delivery room it was immediately apparent something had gone wrong: the newborn was a dark-skinned, African American baby, which did not match Murray or the donor profile she had selected.³ An at-home DNA test in late January 2024 confirmed the baby was not genetically related to her.⁴ Murray’s attorneys notified the clinic in February 2024, and in March 2024 Coastal Fertility Specialists confirmed the error internally and identified the biological parents, a couple in another state who had also been patients there.²

What happened to Murray’s own embryos remains unknown. She does not know whether they were transferred to another patient by mistake or remain in storage.⁵

Losing Custody of the Baby

Once the biological parents were notified, they confirmed the genetic relationship through DNA testing and sued Murray for custody when the baby was about three months old. The dispute required her to hire family-law counsel in more than one state.⁶³

Her attorneys advised her she had no realistic chance in family court because DNA confirmed the other couple were the genetic parents. During a family court hearing in May 2024, Murray voluntarily surrendered the baby. She has not seen him since, and the child now lives with his biological parents under a different name.⁵⁶

Murray described the handoff as “the hardest day of my life,” recalling that she walked into the building as a mother and walked out with an empty stroller.⁷ Through her attorneys, she said she was “emotionally broken” and would “never fully recover.”⁸

What the Lawsuit Claims and Seeks

Murray sued Coastal Fertility Specialists and Dr. Jeffrey Gray, the clinic’s embryology laboratory director. The complaint was originally filed in the State Court of Chatham County, Georgia, in early 2025 and was later moved to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, assigned case number 4:25-cv-00085 before Chief District Judge R. Stan Baker. The case is classified as a personal injury and medical malpractice action.¹⁹

The complaint alleges negligence, saying the clinic failed to properly manage the embryo transfer process and turned Murray into an “unwitting surrogate.” It describes the incident as a “preventable, reckless nightmare.”¹⁰ Murray is seeking at least $75,000 in damages, including punitive damages, and a jury trial.⁴

She is represented by Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway and Wise, a firm that specializes in fertility clinic litigation. Partner Adam Wolf, who leads the firm’s embryo-loss practice and has represented more than 1,000 people in cases against fertility centers, called the mix-up a “very serious error” with “life-altering” consequences.⁷

How the Clinic Responded

Coastal Fertility Specialists acknowledged the error publicly through its executive director, Isabel Bryan, who called it an “unprecedented error” and an “isolated event” in the clinic’s 15-year history. Bryan said the clinic conducted an in-depth review the same day the error was discovered and implemented additional safeguards. “We are doing everything we can to make things right for those affected by this incident,” she said.¹¹

The clinic operates one location in Savannah, Georgia, and four locations in South Carolina.¹² Its attorney, Carlton Joyce, has declined to comment on the litigation beyond the initial public statement.¹

Where the Case Stands Now

As of January 2026, the case was heading to court-facilitated mediation rather than a trial. WTOC reported on January 13, 2026, that mediation was scheduled for the week of March 9 through March 13, 2026.¹ Court records show the case remained open as of late November 2025, with the defendants having filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings in October 2025 and an amended scheduling order in place.¹³ No public reporting has confirmed whether the mediation produced a settlement.

Murray has since started treatment at a different fertility clinic and has spoken publicly about her experience. “If we don’t come forward and we don’t speak our truth and we don’t share our experiences, then there will never be change,” she said.⁵

Why IVF Errors Are Hard to Police

Murray’s case fits a broader pattern. An NBC News analysis identified more than 300 lawsuits filed between 2019 and 2024 involving lost, destroyed, or swapped reproductive materials.¹⁴

Fertility clinics are not required to report errors to federal or state agencies, and there is no national database for IVF mistakes. Most embryology labs are inspected by private accreditation organizations rather than government regulators. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine issues voluntary guidelines and the FDA inspects certain aspects of egg and embryo storage, but there is no mandatory certification requirement for laboratory staff. Many clinics also require patients to sign arbitration agreements that keep disputes private.¹⁴

Legal recovery can also be difficult. Courts often treat IVF mistakes as negligence or property damage rather than traditional medical malpractice, which can limit compensation for emotional harm. Georgia law requires medical malpractice claims to be filed within two years of the injury and imposes an absolute five-year statute of repose from the date of the negligent act.¹⁵ Wolf has framed Murray’s case as part of a systemic regulatory failure, saying that “until IVF clinics are subject to real regulations, reporting requirements and mandatory certification programs for lab staff, these mishaps will continue to occur.”⁷

1
WTOC. Savannah IVF Mix-Up Case Heads to Mediation
2
6abc. Savannah Georgia Woman Gives Birth to Another Couple’s Biological Child, IVF Mix-Up Lawsuit
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WSAV. Coastal Fertility Specialists Sued Over IVF Mixup Custody Suit
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CBS News. Coastal Fertility Lawsuit Krystena Murray IVF
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ABC News. Georgia Woman Sues IVF Clinic After Giving Birth
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BBC News. Coastal Fertility Specialists IVF Embryo Mix-Up
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NBC News. Woman Sues IVF Clinic After Birthing Another Couple’s Baby
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Washington Post. IVF Lawsuit Fertility Clinic Georgia
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Law360. Murray v. Coastal Fertility Specialists
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Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She Gave Birth to a Baby That Wasn’t Hers. Now She’s Suing the IVF Clinic
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ABC 33/40. Mother Sues South Carolina Based IVF Clinic After Giving Birth to Wrong Baby
12
Coastal Fertility Specialists. Treatment
13
UniCourt. Murray v. Coastal Fertility Specialists, LLC et al
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NBC News. IVF Errors Legal Protections
15
Justia. O.C.G.A. § 9-3-71