IVF Clinic Implanted Wrong Embryo in ‘Unthinkable Mix-Up’

A Florida couple is desperately seeking answers after learning their beloved daughter is not genetically related to them.

Tiffany Score and Steven Mills welcomed a healthy baby girl on December 11, 2025, after conceiving through in vitro fertilization (IVF). Immediately, they noticed that their new daughter appeared to be of a different race than her parents.

A DNA test confirmed their daughter, Shea, had no genetic relationship to either parent, raising urgent questions about the origin of the embryo.

“I have a million things I want to say and so many emotions I wish I could share, but for now, this is what we are able to tell you: due to a medical error—the wrong embryo implanted by the doctor—Shea is not genetically related to either Steve or me," Score wrote in a January 29 Facebook post.

Faced with this discovery, the couple filed a lawsuit against IVF Life Inc., operating as the Fertility Center of Orlando, alleging that their embryo was not used, according to The Guardian. They also sued Dr. Milton McNichol, the clinic’s lead physician.

The Fertility Center of Orlando, the clinic named in the suit, offers fertility care, including egg freezing and intrauterine insemination. Score got pregnant through IVF in April 2025, with their doctor implanting what they thought was the couple’s embryo.

While the amount of damages sought is unknown, a spokesperson for the family’s legal team said the lawsuit was not about money.

Speaking to The Guardian, the spokesperson emphasized, “This is not a lawsuit for damages at this point and our clients very much remain focused on finding the genetic parents of a daughter that they love and who is a beautiful, healthy girl.”

Score opened up more about her thoughts on Facebook.

The post continued, “While we are profoundly grateful to have Shea in our lives and love her immeasurably, we also recognize that we have a moral obligation to find her genetic parents.”

Score emphasized that the couple is thrilled about Shea’s birth, but says their feelings are “complicated by the devastating reality that her genetic parents—whom we do not yet know—or possibly another family entirely, may have received our genetic embryo.”

She wrote, “The added fear that Shea could be taken from us at any time is almost unbearable.”

She closed the post with a request for anyone with knowledge of Shea’s genetic family to contact her.

Her sister, Alexa Score, started a GoFundMe campaign to support the family and “help cover extensive medical expenses, including prior IVF costs, hospital bills, and mental health therapies.”

In the description, Alexa described the events as “an unthinkable IVF embryo mix-up,” and recalled how her sister and Mills “spent years preparing for a child—taking classes, building a nursery and filling it with books and toys.”

She wrote that the funds would also be used to help with locating Shea’s biological parents and the couple’s embryos, and they “may be used to retrieve eggs that were frozen during an IVF cycle completed at a different clinic seven years ago—an option they never anticipated needing.”

According to Florida Today, the clinic published and deleted a statement about the case that read, “Multiple entities are involved in this process, and all parties are working diligently to help identify when and where the error may have occurred. Our priority remains transparency and the well-being of the patient and child involved. We will continue to assist in any way that we can regardless of the outcome of the investigation.”

The Fertility Center of Orlando did not immediately respond to The Looker’s requests for comment.