DEBORAH and Paul were in high spirits as they drove to the hospital. They had just received a telephone call to tell them one of their frozen embryos had survived the thawing process.

Within a few hours doctors planned to implant it in Deborah in the hope of giving the couple a brother or sister for their son, Jamie, now six, who was born after three cycles of IVF treatment.

Deborah, 40, a National Health Service healthcare assistant from Bridgend, south Wales, said: “We were so happy to think this tiny embryo could have survived being frozen for almost five years. It was something to look forward to.”

When the couple arrived at the IVF clinic at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, they were well aware of what lay ahead of them from previous treatment cycles. Deborah changed into an operating gown and they waited to be called into the theatre, where their embryo would be implanted in her womb.

There were three women on the theatre list to have embryos implanted that afternoon and the couple prepared for their names to be called as they saw the first woman emerge from the theatre.

Instead, Deborah and Paul were called into an administrative room to be told of a “grave error” that would shatter their hopes of having a second child.

The only surviving embryo had been implanted, by mistake, into another woman. The pregnancy would later be aborted, the thought of which still causes Deborah to burst into tears.

But at the time all the couple were told was that the embryo had been accidentally destroyed.

Deborah said: “They said they were sorry to tell us that there had been an accident in the lab and our embryo had been destroyed. We were in shock. We just couldn’t believe it. I got very upset.”

It was two days before the couple learnt the truth about what had happened to their last frozen embryo.

They were called back to the hospital to hear that what the couple describe as “the worst nightmare of anyone going through IVF” had happened to them.

By this time their embryo, which had been implanted in another patient, had been aborted.

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