‘Very nervous': Radio star Jase Hawkins admits fears after conceiving son via Melbourne's error-plagued Monash IVF clinic
Nova star Jase Hawkins has expressed fear for his and his wife's embryos at Monash IVF after a second major blunder plagued the Melbourne clinic this year.
The fertility clinic in the Melbourne suburb of Clayton on Tuesday revealed it mistakenly transferred the wrong embryo into a patient.
It comes just months after the company admitted one of its patients gave birth to a stranger's child in a shocking embryo mix-up in April.
Hawkins, 42, on Wednesday revealed he and his wife Lou conceived their youngest son Archie via the fertility clinic.
One-half of Nova 100's Jase & Lauren said the couple still has embryos stored there in case they decide to have more children.
However, he said he now doesn't 'trust' the clinic after the blunder and will have a 'conversation' with Lou about taking them off the ice.
'I'm not trying to be dramatic, but I'm like, I don't trust them sitting in that freezer at the moment,' Hawkins told his co-host Lauren Phillips.
'It just made me think last night, well, I think we need to speed up that conversation about what we want to do with them.
'Because, at the moment, I don't trust the current situation.'
Hawkins reassured listeners the couple are sure they aren't the victims of an embryo mix-up with Archie, who they said looks a lot like his older brother, Felix.
'He's a dead set ringer for his brother...so we're pretty sure we're good there,' the radio star said
Nevertheless, he said there was an 'icky feeling in his guts' after hearing about Monash IVF's latest muddle-up.
"As someone who's gone through it (IVF), like it was such a, such a personal experience," he said.
"And whatever company you go through for something like, there's that trust that you have."
Last Thursday, the Melbourne clinic accidentally put a patient's own embryo into a patient rather than an embryo from their partner as planned.
'Monash IVF has extended its sincere apologies to the affected couple, and we continue to support them,' a spokesperson said.
'Commencing immediately, Monash IVF will implement interim additional verification processes and patient confirmation safeguards over and above normal practice and electronic witness systems to ensure patients and clinicians have every confidence in its processes.
'Whilst industry-leading electronic witness systems have and are being rolled out across Monash IVF, there remains instances and circumstances whereby manual witnessing is required.'
'Monash IVF has disclosed the incident to the relevant assisted reproductive technology (ART) regulators, namely the Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee certifying body and Victorian Health Regulator.'
The company's previous incident, reported in April, occurred at its Brisbane facility in 2023.
Monash IVF blamed a 'human error' as the reason for the embryo mix-up which led to a birth.
'Instead of finding the expected number of embryos, an additional embryo remained in storage for the birth parents,' a Monash IVF spokesperson said.
'(An) investigation confirmed that an embryo from a different patient had previously been incorrectly thawed and transferred to the birth parents, which resulted in the birth of a child.'
It was not until February, months after the mother gave birth, that Monash IVF realised the mistake.
Chief Michael Knapp, at the time, said he was "truly sorry" for what had happened and was "confident that this is an isolated incident".
A Victoria government spokesperson said the government requested Monash IVF explain what happened in Brisbane to reassure all families.
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