Girl who had abortion after botched paternity check sues DNA firm – NBC New York

Who was the daddy: Her fiancé, or the person with whom she had a quick fling?

In Oct. 2024, that was the pressing query for a New York Metropolis girl. 

She thought she received her reply when a paternity check confirmed there was a 99.9% chance her unborn child was the product of that short-lived fling. The outcomes, she says, prompted her to have an abortion with a purpose to protect her relationship along with her fiancé. 

“I made a decision to avoid wasting my marriage,” she mentioned. “I used to be already 5 months pregnant. I made a decision to terminate the being pregnant.”

4 months later, the lady, who requested to not be named for privateness causes, says she received a startling message from DNA Diagnostics Middle, the testing firm, which was now searching for to amend its authentic paternity outcomes. 

The corporate had simply issued a brand new, corrected report which confirmed there was now a 0% likelihood the opposite man from that fling was the daddy. 

Talking solely to the NBC New York I-Staff, the lady mentioned she would by no means have ended her being pregnant if the genetics firm had gotten the outcomes appropriate the primary time. She’s now suing DNA Diagnostics Middle, claiming the corporate’s negligence left her relationship in ruins.

“You took away the household I might have had. This was the particular person I used to be marrying. That is the particular person I wished to construct a household with,” she mentioned. “The rationale I took motion was as a result of I believed in these outcomes. I assumed this was one thing that was a hundred percent true. And it led me to the abortion.”

DNA Diagnostics Middle, declined to reply questions concerning the paternity check mix-up. As an alternative, the corporate despatched the I-Staff a press release emphasizing its genetics testing strategies are sound.

“Over the previous 30 years, DDC has offered dependable and correct testing to thousands and thousands of shoppers,” the assertion learn. “If any challenge or concern is raised, we take speedy motion, and DDC will carry out a retest to validate the preliminary end result. We have now established industry-leading processes and finest practices throughout our laboratory and firm to make sure clients are quickly notified of any points and high quality assurance steps are adopted.”

The corporate additionally declined to clarify the way it got here to evaluation the lady’s preliminary genetic outcomes months after they had been issued — or whether or not that evaluation included different paternity exams which could even have suffered issues.

The lady advised the I-Staff she was uncomfortable concerning the paternity check virtually from the start, as a result of she says DNA Diagnostics directed her to have blood drawn at a Bronx deal with which seems to additionally home a magnificence salon that gives beauty procedures like facials, physique contouring, eyelash, and hair/scalp remedies. 

“In case you’re stepping into to ask for a paternity check, you don’t wish to go try this in entrance of people who find themselves getting their hair completed,” mentioned Craig Phemister, the lady’s lawyer. 

The third-party Bronx firm which collected the lady’s genetic pattern declined remark.

In response to the DNA Diagnostics web site, the Ohio firm is “the World’s Main Relationship DNA Testing Middle,” having performed greater than 20 million DNA exams since 1995.

Phemister mentioned he believes the sheer variety of genetic exams accomplished by the corporate suggests there might be extra errors.

“The sphere this firm is in is a subject that can’t have errors like this,” he mentioned. “I’m certain we’re going to seek out, and time will inform, there can be different folks that come ahead and study that these identical issues have occurred to them.”

This isn’t the primary time DNA Diagnostics Middle has been accused of constructing genetics testing errors which have monumental ripple results for households and relationships. 

In 2018, Joel Santiago, a father or mother from Connecticut, sued the agency after certainly one of its paternity exams concluded he was not the organic father of his first-born youngster. 

About 18 months later, Santiago says he received amended outcomes from DNA Diagnostics Middle displaying the other conclusion – that he really was her dad. However by that point, he mentioned his relationship with the kid’s organic mom had ended, successfully depriving him of taking part within the first two years of his daughter’s childhood.

“It fully modified the trajectory of my life,” Santiago mentioned. “Valuable moments like naming my youngster, witnessing her delivery, watching her first steps, had been all erased.”

Joel Santiago’s lawsuit towards DNA Diagnostics ended with a jury awarding him $2.5 million in damages.

Steven Errante, the lawyer who gained that award, mentioned — as a result of the corporate admitted legal responsibility for the laboratory error – the trial largely targeted on damages. Thus, he mentioned he was restricted in his potential to resolve precisely how the DNA testing agency found there was a problem with Joel’s authentic outcomes. 

“It was at all times mystifying to us as a result of, in Joel’s case, it was virtually eighteen months later that they known as him to say they’ve made a mistake,” Errante mentioned. “Why would you be these outcomes eighteen months later?  We by no means actually received a solution.”

DNA Diagnostics declined to reply questions on Joel Santiago’s paternity check or how the choice was made to challenge corrected outcomes.

Paternity exams make up solely a part of the corporate’s enterprise. In response to the DNA Diagnostics Middle web site, the agency additionally gives DNA testing for presidency companies, together with genetic testing for legislation enforcement in legal circumstances and immigration proceedings.

Phemister believes his consumer’s expertise with mistaken paternity outcomes raises questions on DNA Diagnostics amenities which can present leads to a complete host of civil and legal contexts.

“The identical DNA labs are doing testing that’s relied on by the court docket methods,” Phemister mentioned.  “In the event that they make errors after which not uncover these errors for months or years later, that’s it.  These folks’s lives are devastated.”