Babies switched at birth meet 56 years on
Two women in the US were swapped at birth
Two women who were accidentally switched at birth have finally had the truth revealed to them after 56 years.
Grandmothers Kay Rene Reed Qualls and DeeAnn Angell Shafer discovered they were not biologically related to their siblings after midwives mistakenly swapped them in 1953.
After DNA testing it was confirmed that the pair had been switched and now both families are said to be very close, with the women even celebrating their birthday together earlier this month.
The mix up came to light when an unidentified woman in a nursing home phoned Kay Rene’s brother, Bobby Reed and told him she had been a friend of his mothers and a neighbour of Marjorie Angell.
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She told him that she had been convinced the babies had been swapped when Angell came home with the newborn but decided not to say anything.
Pioneer Memorial Hospital, where the switch happened, agreed to pay for the DNA testing and offered the two families counseling, which they declined.
The hospital administrator Victor Vander Does was unable to locate records going back as far as 1953 or the nurses working there at the time.
Speaking about her past, Shafer said: "I'm trying to move forward at look at the positive. You can't look back. It just drives you crazy."
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