Woman sues doctor after Christmas gift reveals alarming mistake before her birth
A seemingly-innocuous Christmas present has changed a woman's life forever after discovering she's not biologically related to the man she believed to be her father.
Jessica Harvey Galloway received a DNA test for Christmas in 2020 to learn more about her family history ahead of a trip to Italy with her husband.
Her dad Mike Harvey has Italian heritage and it was something Ms Galloway was keen to learn more about.
But when Ms Galloway took the DNA test it showed Ms Harvey was not her biological father.
“Since then, our lives will never be the same,” Ms Galloway, from Cleveland in Ohio, said at a press conference.
Her mum Jeanine Harvey visited Summa Health System in 1991 where she underwent intrauterine insemination, which involves inserting sperm directly into a woman’s uterus.
The DNA test showed while Ms Harvey is her biological mother another man’s sperm had been used to fertilise the egg.
The family is now suing Dr Nicholas Spirtos who performed the procedure.
Ms Harvey said the news of her daughter’s actual paternity has been overwhelming.
“It’s difficult to explain my feelings,” she said.
“I still struggle sleeping at night thinking about it. Then I begin to think, whose sperm was forced inside of my body? What kind of health issues could that person possibly be providing to my daughter?”
Summa Health System spokesperson Mike Bernstein said the allegation is being taken seriously.
Mr Bernstein added that hospital officials have not met with the family or conducted their own testing.
“Given the very limited information that we have, it remains our hope that the attorneys representing the family will work with us to make that next step a priority,” Mr Bernstein said.
Cleveland-based lawyer Ashlie Case Sletvold on Wednesday said that her firm first reached out to Dr Spirtos and the hospital system seven months ago, offering to share medical records and paternity test results but did not receive a response.
Woman's real father identified
Ms Galloway, through her own investigation and the help of her lawyers, eventually found the man a DNA test confirmed is her biological father. The man and his wife were undergoing in vitro fertilisation treatment when the Harveys were being treated by Dr Spirtos at Akron General Hospital, Summa’s predecessor, the lawsuit said.
Ms Galloway said she has communicated with her biological father via text but has not met him.
Mr Harvey said it is “extremely difficult to watch your family in pain.”
“And the source of the pain is something that I’ll never be able to change,” he said.
“Learning that your entire reality isn’t what you believed it to be is hard to explain. It’s like waking up in someone else’s life.”
The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages and an order requiring Dr Spirtos and Summa Health to find Mr Harvey’s genetic material or account for its location.
with The Associated Press
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