Durham police say they will not be laying any charges against a prenatal imaging business that distributed the same image to several different mothers.
Police investigated 21 separate complaints about the business last month after a number of women said that they had received the same photo from the clinic.
However police said Monday in a news release that a computer error was to blame for the wrong photos being distributed and that there was no criminal intent uncovered.
Clinics that promise 3D images of the babies from the womb are not regulated and the debacle prompted Health Minister Eric Hoskins’ office to say they might look into regulating the businesses.
However one of the mothers who received an image from the clinic told CTV Toronto that she’s not satisfied with the outcome. Jennifer Cusimano said she received a phone call from Durham police to let her know that they had investigated and found a computer error was to blame.
“I was completely shocked and very upset to hear this as I, along with all the other women, don’t believe that for one second,” Cusimano said.
She said that she and several other moms are looking into filing a lawsuit.
“The whole situation makes me feel sick and I really just have no words to describe what I’m feeling at this moment,” Cusimano said.
Speaking to CTV Toronto, a man at the clinic who identified himself as Adeel Adeel Mir said that he was just as confused as anyone else about the situation.
“There is a technical glitch between the machine that takes the images and those images are transferred to the computer and then printed out,” he said.
He said prior to 22 weeks, all babies look the same and it is difficult to tell them apart in images.
“There are separate folders, made for specific clients. Those files were merged, we took the printout and could not see it was a different picture because the babies look the same at that point.”
The clinic has said all along that a glitch was to blame and offered a refund or new photos free of charge to affected customers.
