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A COUPLE who have been trying for a baby for eight years are taking legal action against a Welsh IVF clinic which “lost” their embryos.

The couple, known only as Clare and Gareth, said staff at IVF Wales, based at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, told them the embryos had been lost just as they were about to be implanted.

But the clinic, which was at the centre of another IVF mistake last year after it implanted a couple’s last embryo into another woman, said the loss was a well-known complication of embryo vitrification.

This process involves embryos being frozen in liquid nitrogen for storage and thawed for implantation.

The case comes as figures obtained by BBC5 Live show that errors at fertility clinics in Wales and England almost doubled in 12 months.

Clare told the station’s Donal Macintyre programme last night: “I was sat there, gowned up, waiting to go in and have a transfer. They said you’ve got one embryo remaining, the other two embryos have gone missing. They said in the next sentence, ‘I can assure you they haven’t gone into anyone else’.”

She added: “Those were two potential babies.”

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, which runs IVF Wales, compensated a couple from Bridgend last year after the clinic implanted Deborah Hole and Paul Thomas’ last viable embryo in the wrong woman.

The couple had been hoping to conceive a sibling for their son Jamie.

An investigation found serious failings at the clinic.

Clare and Gareth’s solicitor, Guy Forster, of law firm Irwin Mitchell, said he has dealt with a dozen couples involved in similar incidents at different clinics around the country in the past 12 months.

He said: “I am deeply concerned that the same clinic finds itself yet again at the centre of a serious incident.

“The second error involving Clare and Gareth’s embryos appears to have occurred just seven months after the first serious incident relating to Paul and Deborah’s embryo.

“The incident followed two previous near miss incidents and concerns raised in inspections of the clinic.

“It seems that lessons have not been learned. Not only does this raise concerns about the clinic, but also serious questions need to be asked regarding the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s (HFEA) ability to properly regulate the IVF industry.”

But Dr Chris Jones, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board’s medical director, said: “IVF Wales has a success rate of 99.5% in recovering embryos using this complex and technically challenging process, which involves arranging embryos smaller than a full stop on a special cryo leaf, and freezing them by plunging them into liquid nitrogen. The embryos are subsequently thawed.

“Unfortunately, the loss of embryos during this process is a known complication and the risk of failure is explained to every patient undergoing the procedure.

“We understand that, where embryos are lost, this can be distressing for patients and aim to handle such cases with the utmost sensitivity.

“Counselling is offered to all patients as a matter of course.”

Figures obtained by the programme reveal the number of mistakes at IVF centres in Wales and England rose from 182 in 2007-08 to 334 in 2008-09.

They included embryos being lost or implanted in the wrong woman and eggs being fertilised with another man’s sperm.

The HFEA said the errors represent less than 1% of more than 50,000 IVF cycles carried out.