Central Florida Couple Sues Orlando Fertility Clinic After Embryo Mix-Up

Genetic testing reported in Seminole County court filings shows the infant born to Tiffany Score and Steven Mills has no genetic connection to the couple, who have sued an Orlando-area fertility clinic alleging an embryo mix-up. The suit seeks to identify the child’s biological parents and to investigate how embryos were stored and handled; filings and hearing records name IVF Life Inc., while at least one report also cites Fertility Center of Orlando in Longwood and Dr. Milton McNichol.

At a Feb. 24, 2026 hearing in Seminole County Circuit Court before Judge Margaret Schreiber, attorneys agreed to expedite DNA testing for at least one patient couple identified by number in a confidential report, with testing to expand to fewer than 20 couple sets if necessary. The court ordered IVF Life attorneys to send notices to patients who used the clinic on key dates in 2020 and 2025 offering genetic testing, a waiver of confidentiality, and a phone number and email for questions. Judge Schreiber said, “This is all very positive news.”

Defense and plaintiffs’ counsel described sharply different concerns about privacy and identification. Orlando attorney Francis Pierce, who represents Dr. McNichol, told the court, “Everyone is going to get contacted.” Defense counsel also warned, “There is a small patient population that is involved with the retrievalss and an extraordinarily small, excuse [clears throat] me, population involved with the transfer. And these small patients populations increase the risk of patient identification.” To address HIPAA limits on disclosing health information, the court-ordered notice will include an option for patients to sign confidentiality waivers to permit genetic testing.

Plaintiffs’ filings paint a picture of disordered lab practices. The motion and hearing excerpts quote plaintiffs’ attorneys describing “ad‑hoc written labels” and material at times in unlabeled containers; the filings state embryos were sometimes “outside of their labeled straws and they are in petri dishes and they are in the lab. It makes the most sense that that is where a switch could have happened.” Plaintiff attorney Cersi Denny told the court, “It appears to us that more likely than not that retrieval risk pool is the source of the error here.”

Leads have already emerged. Several women have contacted the family after news reports, including women who had embryo transfers on April 7, 2025 or whose embryos were stored the same week in 2020. Plaintiffs’ counsel reported one woman with a “strikingly similar” last name who had a transfer on April 7, 2025 is willing to undergo genetic testing; plaintiffs’ filings say a review of her public Facebook page showed a photo of her husband whose complexion the parents say is similar to the child. No genetic testing of that lead had been completed as of the Feb. 24 hearing. A filing also references clinic records suggesting a possible embryo donor described as an “Indian couple.”

Score and Mills say they originally had three viable embryos stored at the clinic and have asked the court to permit genetic testing of their remaining frozen embryo before transferring it to a different clinic. Plaintiffs’ counsel Mara Hatfield said, “We’ve made significant headway,” and the motion stressed the couple’s emotional stakes: “They have fallen in love with this baby, and they love her and want to keep her. They want to know whether there's any reasonable prospect that they can keep her. But they are also very much concerned that there is somebody out there, someone out there who doesn't know”

The court ordered weekly status hearings and directed IVF Life to certify that patients from March 2020 through April 2025 were contacted and offered waivers; the next status hearing is scheduled for March 4, 2026. The clinic must report to Judge Schreiber whether any patients consent to testing and whether any biological material has been submitted for genetic analysis as the investigation proceeds.