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15th April 2025

It is without a doubt, one of the worst IVF bungles in Australian history that’s caused the two families involved unimaginable heartbreak.

Medical editor Robyn Riley exclusively revealed the horror mix-up in which Monash IVF wrongly implanted a woman with another couple's embryo, leading her to give birth to a stranger’s baby.

It sent shockwaves around the world.

Robyn – who has more than 30 years of experience covering health – received a tip off and then spent the next two days meticulously checking the facts to ensure it was true.

As questions continue to swirl about what needs to change to make sure this never happens again, we spoke to legal experts about who gets to keep the child. Is it the mum who gave birth, or the biological parents?

Meanwhile we’re now getting close to the end of the Get Your Body Right series. Week five is all about a useful hack to seeing progress.

Anthony Dowsley – who won a Gold Walkley, journalism’s highest honour, for his reporting on the infamous Lawyer X scandal – has been taking part each week. This is what he had to say about last week’s focus on preventing the “phenomenon of tech neck”.

I was a youngish reporter when Tony Mokbel simply vanished in the middle of his trial in 2006. Back then, he was dubbed Fat Tony. I, on the other hand, was fit. But no one called me Thin Tony.

After he was captured in Athens 15 months later, our lives would all intersect later because of the Lawyer X story - the revelation that Mokbel’s lawyer, Nicola Gobbo, was informing against him. When I set eyes on Mokbel for the first time in the flesh as he walked away from court a free man, I couldn’t help a thought flashing through my mind.

Tony has lost 20kg and I’ve put them on. Am I now Fat Tony? Extra weight has many negatives. One of them is bad posture and the unrelenting ache I feel down the side of my neck.

They now call it “tech neck”. I’ve been concentrating on dulling those aches by completing the neck stretches. It instantly makes you stand straighter. But I’m still working on my Underbelly.

Ashleigh Gleeson

National Health Editor

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