ORLANDO — A heartbroken Florida couple who dreamed of starting a family through IVF ended up giving birth to another family's child in a devastating lab blunder, but they've now been granted permanent custody of the little girl they've raised as their own.
Steven Mills and Tiffany Score, both white, welcomed a baby girl on December 11, 2025, after an embryo transfer at the Fertility Center of Orlando in Longwood. But joy quickly turned to shock when the newborn, later named Shea, displayed physical features indicating she was not Caucasian.
Genetic testing confirmed the nightmare: The embryo implanted in Score belonged to another couple, one of South Asian descent. The couple had no biological link to the healthy baby girl they’d bonded with over nine months of pregnancy and the first months of her life.
"This has been an absolute nightmare," their attorney previously told outlets, describing the "horrendous error" at the now-shuttered clinic.
The mix-up sparked an urgent lawsuit against the Fertility Center of Orlando (also known as IVF Life Inc.) and its head reproductive endocrinologist, Dr. Milton McNichol. The couple feared their own biological embryos might have been transferred to someone else — and demanded answers, broad genetic testing for other patients, and accountability.
In April, DNA sleuthing identified Shea's genetic parents, whose identities remain confidential. The two families entered negotiations while Mills and Score made clear they had fallen "in love with this child" and wanted to raise her.
Now, a Florida court has approved a custody agreement that lets the birth parents keep permanent legal custody of the girl they've loved since Day 1.
Court documents reveal a "mutually devised" deal between the families. Mills and Score will raise Shea, while building an ongoing relationship with her biological parents. The clinic has also located the couple's remaining embryo and shipped it to a new facility for verification.
Tiffany Score and Steven Mills released a statement expressing gratitude amid the pain."What we are feeling right now is not anger — it is gratitude and joy for our healthy, beautiful baby girl who is the light of our lives," they said, according to reports.
The Fertility Center of Orlando, already facing multiple lawsuits, including claims of other errors and a surrogate baby death, shut down operations earlier this year amid legal and financial woes.
IVF horror stories like this are raising alarms nationwide about clinic safeguards, labeling practices, and what happens when science goes horribly wrong.
For Mills and Score, the fight is over, but the love story with their daughter is just beginning."We love our little girl and hope to continue raising her with confidence she won’t be taken away," the couple has said.
A beautiful ending born from chaos.
