Couple claims doctor wrongly inseminated wife with stranger’s sperm

AKRON, Ohio (WOIO) - Attorneys representing a couple and their daughter say the family will soon be filing a lawsuit that claims an Ohio doctor inseminated the wife with a stranger’s sperm, something they say was discovered years later through a home DNA test.

In what attorneys are calling a “botched procedure,” sperm from another patient at Akron City Hospital was allegedly used to inseminate a woman, leaving her pregnant with a daughter who was not the product of her husband’s genetic material, WOIO reports.

According to a news release, the doctor serving the couple was Dr. Nicholas J. Spirtos, who the attorneys say was working as Chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and In Vitro Fertilization/Embryo Transfer.

A listing of physicians working for Summa Health, the system that oversees Akron City Hospital, currently offers the option to book an appointment with Spirtos.

The family, represented by Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise attorneys, intends to file a lawsuit Wednesday in the Summit County Court of Common Pleas, according to the release.

That same day, attorneys plan to have a live video news conference with the family.

Mike Bernstein, Summa Health Corporate Communications System Director, released the following statement to WOIO about the potential lawsuit:

“We are aware of an allegation that has been made claiming in 1991 a patient was artificially inseminated with the semen from a person who is not her husband. We take this allegation seriously and understand the impact this has on the family. 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 the attorneys representing the family will work with us to make that next step a priority.”

The attorneys are calling for more oversight on the fertility industry, which they say is currently unregulated by the federal government, in wake of the alleged mix-up.