Couple demand an apology over failed vasectomy

May 3 2005

A British woman and her husband have lodged a formal complaint against St Patrick's Clinic for Reproductive Health in Birmingham after her husband's vasectomy has been proved to have failed.

Julie Garrett, 38, has demanded an apology from the doctors who carried out the procedure claiming staff at St Patrick's Clinic for Reproductive Health in Birmingham had insisted the vasectomy was successful.

Garrett said the clinic's attitude had cast doubt on who fathered the couple's son and her partner Gary McDonnell had suffered upset until DNA tests proved he was the father of 14-week-old Ryan.

Mr McDonnell, 37, had the vasectomy in November 2002 after the birth of the couple's second child. Miss Garrett said she was left shell-shocked when she became pregnant last summer. Her husband contacted the clinic and underwent tests and they insisted that the vasectomy had been successful.

According to the couple during a phone call, a member of the clinic's staff told Gary that it was "highly unlikely" that he was the child's father.

Miss Garrett says it could have ripped the family apart and only their strong relationship helped them survive and it shows that the medical profession are not always right.

Dr Kulsum Jaffer, a consultant in reproductive and sexual health at the Heart of Birmingham Teaching Primary Care Trust, told a national newspaper that the case had been investigated and evidence strongly suggested that the vasectomy had been successful and would not comment on a DNA test which the trust had not been involved in.