A couple in Florida is alleging that a fertility clinic mistakenly used the sperm of another man to create their daughter’s embryo, which shattered their hopes of being biological parents after discovering their child’s actual DNA.
Joshua and Natalie Strong have filed a lawsuit against the Brown Fertility clinic in Jacksonville, including Medical Director Dr. Samuel Brown and several other defendants, claiming that their mix-up led to their one-year-old daughter having a different biological father than Joshua.
In their lawsuit, filed in Duval County Circuit Court on Thursday, the couple expressed that they had placed their trust in the clinic and its staff to help them start a family, only to feel that trust betrayed.
“The Strongs are now raising a daughter whose paternity test confirms that another man, not Joshua, fathered her,” the lawsuit states.
Joshua and Natalie, who had been eager to have children, were devastated by the DNA results, which undermined their dreams of parenthood.
“It’s a daily struggle with the emotional aspect of it because you do have sadness and anger in the same day; you also have joy and love,” Joshua shared in an interview with a local news outlet.
Having undergone a vasectomy earlier in life, Joshua had to have a surgical sperm retrieval procedure, resulting in four vials of sperm, for which the couple paid the clinic “tens of thousands of dollars” for treatments.
The sperm was supposed to be used to fertilize Natalie’s eggs and create embryos that would be subsequently implanted in her.
In June 2025, Natalie gave birth to a girl, but the couple noticed something strange from the outset.
According to the lawsuit, “Within the first day of life, routine newborn blood typing produced a result that did not fit.” The child was found to have Blood Type B Positive, which did not match either parent, since Natalie has O Negative blood type and Joshua has A Negative.
DNA testing later confirmed that there was a 0% probability Joshua was the newborn’s father.
“It took away the euphoria of having a baby,” Natalie recounted. “It was my first child, I was in heaven. It was the best day of my life, and then when that hit us, it took all the happiness away, which we should have had for a very long time.”
Despite informing the clinic about the DNA results, the couple has not received adequate explanations.
“Despite irrefutable DNA evidence, Brown Fertility and Dr. Brown have refused to admit what they did, refused to account for Joshua’s missing sperm, and refused to take responsibility,” the lawsuit alleges.
This incident marks the second time the couple attempted IVF with this clinic, having previously experienced a miscarriage during their first attempt in mid-2024.
The couple alleges that the same sperm mix-up occurred during the first attempt, but they still don’t know what happened to Joshua’s sperm.
They expressed concerns about whether Joshua has unknowingly fathered other children who might now be raised by other patients of the clinic.
“The Strongs do not know whether Joshua has biological children, fathered without his knowledge, being raised today by other Brown Fertility patients who have no idea,” the lawsuit says.
In their lawsuit, the Strongs are seeking more than $50,000 in damages and a jury trial. Natalie is dealing with the painful reality of having carried another man’s child, while Joshua grapples with the loss of a genetic connection to their daughter and questions about his cryopreserved sperm’s fate.
