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It’s the stuff of nightmares: You give birth to a healthy baby at the hospital, name them, bring them home, and begin to bond, only to later discover that the child you thought was yours isn’t actually your biological one. By the time this horrifying revelation is made, the idea of giving up the child you’ve raised and loved seems unimaginable. But there’s another family out there facing the same heartbreaking truth—they, too, went home with the wrong baby, your real child.
Though most hospitals implement strict protocols to avoid these tragic mix-ups, these occurrences still happen every now and then. Despite the use of methods like fingerprinting or medical ID tagging, there’s no fail-safe against the unpredictable factor of human error, which remains the root cause of these colossal mistakes.
10. Russian Name Tag Chaos
Two 12-year-old girls from Russia, born in the same maternity ward, were recently revealed to have been switched at birth after a father demanded a DNA test for child support. Yuliya Belyaeva’s ex-husband refused to make any payments until the test was done, claiming his daughter, Irina, didn’t resemble him at all. The test results were a shock: He wasn’t the father, and Yuliya wasn’t the mother. This led Yuliya to recall that another woman had given birth in the same ward, prompting her to search for her.
With the aid of local authorities, Yuliya tracked down the other woman and discovered that she and her biological daughter, Anya, had been living only a few miles from her. Despite the surprising reunion, both 12-year-old girls were happy to remain with the families they had known all their lives.
In an astounding blunder, the hospital had mistakenly swapped the girls’ name tags at birth, resulting in them being sent home with the wrong mothers. Both families filed lawsuits against the hospital and were awarded $100,000 each as compensation.
9. The Winner Takes All
One has to question the skill of a hospital staff that, with only two women giving birth on a given day, still manages to make such a huge mistake. This is exactly what happened to Sandy Dawkins and Megs Parker from South Africa when they were both sent home with the wrong babies. The error wasn’t discovered until 18 months later, after a paternity test. By then, both mothers had already been breastfeeding and decided to keep the children they had raised—Robyn with Sandy, and Gavin with Megs.
After the discovery, the two boys spent time together like siblings, but when they turned 15, Megs invited Robyn to live with her and Gavin. Sandy was devastated and has had no contact with either boy since, and they are now both 23 years old. Meanwhile, Megs was quoted saying, “I got the best of both worlds.”
8. Bed, Bath, And Be Gone
Imagine living a seemingly ordinary life for over 50 years: You attend school, find a job, get married, have children, and even enjoy some grandchildren. Then, in your mid-50s, you discover that your family isn’t quite what you always believed it to be. This is exactly what happened to Kay Qualls and Dee Ann Angell Shafer, both 56, from Oregon, when they found out they had been swapped at birth.
A woman who seemed to be familiar with both families reached out to Qualls’s brother with a shocking revelation: His sister had been switched at birth. She explained that this occurred back in 1953 when his mother, Marjorie Qualls, insisted that she had been handed the wrong baby after both newborns were taken for a bath by the nurses at Pioneer Memorial Hospital. Despite her repeated concerns to the hospital staff, Marjorie’s worries were ignored, and she ended up taking home another woman’s child.
A DNA test later confirmed the woman’s account, and Kay Qualls tearfully acknowledged the results. Since then, the two women have become close friends and refer to each other as “swisters.”
7. Bring That Baby Back!
Just hours after bringing her son home, Mary Jo Bathons from Marion, Illinois received a call from the hospital informing her that she had been sent home with the wrong baby—a child that belonged to 17-year-old Kassie Hopkins, another mother who had given birth at Heartland Regional Medical Center. The mix-up happened when both Riley and Hunter were taken at the same time for circumcisions and were later returned to the wrong mothers. The two women are suing the hospital for $50,000 in damages, and the hospital has issued a statement expressing its regret for the error.
John Womack, the attorney representing both women, summed it up perfectly: “If you aren’t careful with babies, then what are you careful with?”
6. Code Confusion
Kevin and Susan Dunagan from Plano, Texas discovered that their newborn son had been swapped with another baby when a hospital staff member entered their room to conduct a routine hearing test. The technician entered the code from their son’s bracelet, only to ask if their child had a different last name. The answer was no. That’s when it became clear that after both boys had undergone circumcisions, they had been mistakenly swapped and returned to the wrong mothers.
The mix-up occurred because the newborns had very similar codes on their bracelets. By then, Susan had already spent about three hours breastfeeding the wrong baby, and the family whose child she had been nursing requested that she be tested for communicable diseases. The hospital administration apologized for the error and even offered to cover the Dunagans’ entire hospital bill.
5. Schoolmates
In 2006, two 10-year-old schoolmates, Jeerawuth Boonyoo (a boy) and Orawan Changthong (a girl), discovered they had been switched at birth after a DNA test confirmed their suspicions. Both were born in May 1995, and it was revealed that their mothers had both fainted during delivery, which led to the confusion and ultimately caused the mix-up. The families agreed to allow the children to decide whether to remain with their current families or move in with their biological parents.
Since the initial revelation, no further updates have been reported regarding the children’s decision.
4. Switched Adoption
In October of 1983, Edith Moore and her husband arrived at Griffin-Spalding Hospital, located just outside Atlanta, to pick up the child they intended to adopt. However, they were mistakenly handed the wrong baby, the child of Judie Pope, who had delivered at the same time. In turn, Judie went home with the baby that was meant for adoption, rather than her own biological child. The Popes were understandably upset when they discovered the error and demanded that the correct child be returned to them to rectify the situation.
In a 1991 decision, Judge Frank M. Eldridge of the Fulton County Superior Court ruled in favor of the Moores, stating, “For over eight years, the Moores have loved, nurtured, and raised the boy as their son. They have given freely of their time, emotions, and material possessions to support this boy as their son. To the boy and to the Moores, there exists a bond and familial connection that no court can undo.”
3. All In The Family
And finally, what good would a list of unfortunate mishaps like these be without at least one uplifting conclusion?
Recently, two 25-year-old men from Brazil, Dimas Aliprandi and Elton Plaster, discovered that they had been accidentally switched at birth. But what makes their story stand out isn’t the mistake itself; it’s how they turned what could have been a devastating revelation into an opportunity, using it to expand their families in a positive way.
When Dimas began suspecting he might not be his parents' biological child, he persuaded his family to undergo a DNA test, offering to cover the cost. His parents agreed, and the results confirmed his suspicions. His parents then supported his search for his birth family, and once found, Dimas’s adoptive family welcomed the Plasters' offer to move onto their farm. The two families built a house together and now work side by side, farming the land and living as one large, united family. The unfortunate mix-up has not caused any bitterness.
“This is how it should be,” said Elton’s father. “Now we’re all together, and I have two sons living and working here.” Dimas remarked, “Not everyone can say they have two fathers and two mothers all living together with them.”
2. Twins Switched At Birth
A Polish court recently awarded over $500,000 in damages to the families of three women who were caught up in a switched-at-birth incident.
In 1984, two-week-old twins Kasia and Nina were admitted to a hospital in Warsaw for pneumonia. However, during their stay, Nina was mistakenly swapped with another infant named Adita. As the two girls were sent home together, their increasingly different appearances led doctors to suggest that they were likely not identical twins, as originally believed, but rather fraternal twins. Seventeen years later, Kasia was told by a friend that she bore a striking resemblance to another girl who lived across town. Upon meeting, they discovered that they shared similar birthmarks and even had common interests.
A DNA test later confirmed the mix-up, and the results have reportedly been a significant emotional burden for the twins' mother.
1. Argentinian Men
Two 34-year-old men from Argentina, Gustavo Germain and Javier Delmasso, recently discovered they had been switched at birth after a blood donation attempt. The revelation came when Javier tried to donate blood to a sister in need, only to find that his blood type didn’t match the one listed on his birth certificate. To his surprise, Javier also happened to meet his biological brother and father and realized he bore a striking resemblance to them.
The mix-up occurred when Marta Delmasso, Gustavo's biological mother, recalled that after spending the night in the newborn ward in 1974, her baby was returned to her dressed in clothes that were not the ones she had bought. It turned out that a nurse had mistakenly swapped their clothes, though to this day, no one has been able to locate that nurse for further explanation.
