A New York woman has discovered that her gynecologist for the last nine years is her biological father, who also happened to be her mother's doctor.
Morgan Hellquist, 35, has filed a lawsuit against Rochester gynecologist Dr. Morris Wortman for his deceitful act. In early 2021, Hellquist learned that her doctor used his sperm for her mother's artificial insemination procedure in the 1980s.
Hellquist has known since she was a little girl that she was conceived with the help of fertility treatments. However, she started to suspect that something was off when she discovered she had nine other half-siblings through a DNA test in 2016.
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Her mother, Jo Ann Levey, thought that her sperm donor was a medical student because this was what Wortman told her. For years, Hellsquist tried to look for this medical student but had no luck tracing his identity. Hellquist's DNA discovery eventually proved that she and her half-siblings had the same sperm donor.
Morgan Hellquist's Birth History
A car accident has left Gary Levey; the father Hellquist has known all her life, paralyzed from the waist down so he could not conceive a baby naturally with his wife. Since he was highly recommended, Gary and Jo Ann went to Wortman, who has his clinic at The Center for Menstrual Disorders.
The couple had specific requirements for the sperm donor, who should have a healthy medical profile and a northern European heritage, Levey's background. The Levey couple revered that Wortman helped them conceive their only child after trying for over a year to have a baby through artificial insemination.
In 2012, Hellquist sought Wortman's expertise for her own reproductive health issues as she suffered from irregular menstrual bleeding. As her gynecologist, he performed transvaginal ultrasounds, pelvic examinations, and IUD placement while sedating Hellquist. The woman alleged that she would not have consented to the procedures had she known that her gynecologist was her birth father.
Raised Suspicion
On her visit to Wortman's clinic for another ultrasound in April 2021, Hellquist was surprised when her gynecologist asked her to remove her face mask since she "looks better" without one. She was also equally surprised when Wortman called in his wife to the examination room to introduce Hellquist.
In her lawsuit, the young woman claimed that Wortman's wife wanted to see if there were a discerning physical resemblance between her husband and his patient. That's when Hellquist realized that the doctor was her mother's sperm donor. Further probing proved that her DNA matched Wortman, which left her in shock and disbelief.
Hellquist has sued Wortman for fraud, medical malpractice, emotional distress, lack of informed consent, negligence, and battery. She claimed in the lawsuit that Wortman was a serial sperm donor and might have likely fathered more children. The woman also found it inconceivable that her gynecologist would "knowingly treat his biological daughter" as no woman in their right mind would consent to such an arrangement.
