Vanner Johnson’s wife, Donna, had purchased the take-home genetic testing kit 23andMe for fun. But when her husband received his family’s 23andMe results in August 2019, he noticed something odd. His 11-year-old son, Tim, wasn’t listed as his biological relative. The couple soon learned that the hospital where Donna had undergone in vitro fertilization (IVF) 12 years earlier had likely mixed up the sperm samples. Vanner wasn’t Tim’s biological dad.
“There were so many questions with no answers,” said Donna. “We had no idea who our son’s biological father was.” When the Johnsons finally tracked down Tim’s biological dad early last year, using a second DNA test and some strategic Googling, they learned he had been another patient at the fertility clinic.
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“It was actually almost comforting when we discovered it was another patient, it was like, ‘at least it wasn’t the doctor,’” Donna explained.