A Central Florida couple celebrating their newborn daughter’s arrival on Christmas Eve 2025 discovered through genetic testing that their IVF clinic had implanted someone else’s embryo, leaving them to raise a biologically unrelated child while searching for answers about their own genetic material.
Story Snapshot
- Steven Mills and Tiffany Score gave birth to a baby girl via IVF on December 24, 2025, only to discover through genetic testing that the child shared no biological connection to either parent due to an embryo mix-up at the Fertility Center of Orlando.
- On April 22, 2026, attorneys confirmed the identity of the biological parents after a couple came forward and underwent testing, though all parties agreed to keep details confidential to protect the child.
- The now-defunct fertility clinic faces multiple lawsuits, including this case and a separate suit over improper surrogate screening that led to a newborn’s death, raising serious questions about oversight in the fertility industry.
- Mills and Score remain committed to raising their daughter despite the biological disconnect, while the fate of their own embryos remains uncertain following the clinic’s closure.
When Christmas Joy Turned to Devastating Discovery
The arrival of baby Shay on Christmas Eve should have been the culmination of Steven Mills and Tiffany Score’s dreams. Instead, it marked the beginning of a nightmare that would expose catastrophic failures at the Fertility Center of Orlando. The couple noticed physical differences in their newborn that prompted genetic testing, which delivered crushing news: the baby girl they had just welcomed into the world was biologically unrelated to either parent. The clinic had transferred the wrong embryo during their April 2025 IVF procedure, possibly due to mislabeling that may have occurred as far back as 2020.
The couple’s attorney, Jack Scarola, filed a lawsuit as Mills and Score grappled with an impossible reality. They faced questions no parent should confront: What happened to their own embryos? Who were the biological parents of the child they now loved? The clinic offered no immediate answers before shuttering its operations, leaving patients scrambling to transfer their genetic materials elsewhere. The facility’s closure came amid mounting legal troubles, including another lawsuit involving a surrogate screening failure that resulted in an infant’s death.
Finding the Biological Parents Through Dogged Detective Work
Mills and Score’s legal team embarked on an unprecedented search, using court filings to narrow down possibilities. They focused on patients who had undergone IVF at the clinic around the time their embryo transfer occurred. The couple’s self-reported ethnicity on intake forms became a critical clue, helping attorneys identify “patient four,” a couple whose background aligned with the baby’s physical characteristics. Court documents filed on a Saturday in mid-April 2026 noted contact had been established, setting the stage for definitive testing.
On Tuesday, April 22, 2026, genetic testing results confirmed what all parties had suspected. The couple who had come forward were indeed the biological parents of baby Shay. Their attorney released a statement noting the clients were “devastated” and “still processing” the revelation that their genetic child was being raised by another family. The biological parents chose to respect Mills and Score’s role as the child’s legal and actual parents, prioritizing the infant’s stability over any custody claims. This cooperation stands in stark contrast to other IVF mix-up cases that have devolved into bitter legal battles.
What Happens When the System Fails Families
The Fertility Center of Orlando’s closure leaves a wake of unanswered questions and compounded tragedies. Mills and Score face the grim reality that recovering their own embryos is now “even more unlikely,” according to their attorney. A new clinic plans to occupy the former facility’s space and handle embryo transfers for displaced patients, but the damage to trust in fertility medicine runs deep. The case highlights systemic vulnerabilities in embryo handling protocols that allowed such a catastrophic error to occur and remain undetected until birth.
Mills and Score released a statement affirming their unwavering commitment to their daughter: “This ends one chapter… we will love and be this child’s parents forever.” Their declaration reflects a profound choice to embrace the family they have rather than mourn the one they expected. The biological parents, meanwhile, face their own private grief, processing the loss of a child they never got to hold. Both families now navigate a landscape without precedent, where love and biology diverge in the most fundamental way imaginable, all because of failures in a system that promised them hope.
Sources:
Biological parents of Florida baby at center of IVF mix-up identified, attorney says
Couple says baby’s genetic parents identified in Florida IVF mix-up case
