Two families have been left devastated after an at-home DNA test revealed their daughters had been swapped at birth in the first documented case of its kind in NHS history.
The ‘appalling error’, which has caused untold emotional turmoil for those involved, meant the two newborns – now grown women – were brought up in the wrong families for five decades and learned the truth only by accident.
The women, now 57, were born within hours of each other at the same hospital in the West Midlands in 1967, and the mistake is thought to be the result of staff inadvertently giving the infants the wrong identification labels.
Both grew up none the wiser about their biological origins until two years ago when the older brother of one of the women took a DNA test from genealogy website Ancestry – which allows users to learn about their family history.
To his surprise, an analysis of his genetic make-up revealed a match with a woman whose DNA was so closely related she could only be a full sibling.
The women, now 57, were born within hours of each other at the same hospital in the West Midlands in 1967. (Stock photo of a maternity ward in 1967)
Both grew up none the wiser about their biological origins until two years ago when the older brother of one of the women took a DNA test (stock photo)
When they discovered she had been born in the same hospital within hours of the woman he thought was his biological younger sister, they realised ‘the only explanation’ was that the babies had been swapped.
The Trust involved has admitted liability for the error and the NHS is set to pay an as-yet undisclosed amount of compensation to both families.
The shocking case emerged in an episode of BBC podcast The Gift, which investigates the family secrets which emerge from at-home DNA test results.
In it, 83-year-old widow Joan, the mother of one of the women, describes meeting her biological daughter, Claire, for the first time – and the agony of telling Jessica, the daughter she believed was hers, what the test had revealed. The names of both women have been changed.
‘It just felt right,’ Joan said, of meeting Claire. ‘We hugged each other. I thought, ‘She looks just like I did in my younger days.’
I just felt connected straight away with her. It was remarkable. I feel I’ve gained a daughter.’
But she also revealed the heartbreak the bombshell has taken on the family – especially Jessica.
‘Jessica has taken it quite badly,’ she said. ‘She doesn’t talk to me now. It’s still hard to take it all in, especially at my age. I feel as if I’ve lost time, I’ve lost a lot of my life now. I’ve lost time with Claire.’
The Trust involved has admitted liability for the error and the NHS is set to pay an as-yet undisclosed amount of compensation to both families (stock photo)
Although no other known cases of babies being swapped has emerged, human error is significantly less likely today (stock photo)
Joan already had three boys – and had given birth to two stillborn daughters – when she finally had a healthy baby girl in 1967. As was routine at the time, the baby was taken away to the nursery overnight to allow Joan to sleep.
When she was returned the next morning, she checked her name tag was correct. At the time, babies were issued with hand-written paper tags and cards on their cots.
Although no other known cases of babies being swapped has emerged, human error is significantly less likely today. Since the 1980s, newborns and mothers are given matching tags after the baby is delivered which contain a unique identification code. And since the mid-1990s babies have been issued with trackable radio frequency identification tags.
While mistakes do happen, they tend to involve twins being mixed up or a baby being brought to the wrong mother on a ward – and all are corrected before families take their infants home.
In Joan’s case, there was no reason to suspect anything untoward until her oldest son Tony, now 67, was gifted a DNA test for Christmas in 2021.
He took the test and sent off a sample of his saliva two months later. The results were uploaded to Ancestry’s global database which can ‘match’ users who are related based on how much DNA they share. Typically, full siblings share around 50 per cent of their genetics.
Tony’s results linked him with Claire – who he had never met and who also took a DNA test. The database claimed she was his sister based on their shared genetic information.
He contacted Claire using the site’s private messaging facility, assuming it must be a mistake.
The hospital Trust which made the error, which was not identified, admitted full responsibility for the incident (stock photo)
Claire said the explanation had ‘answered a lot of questions’ in her life as she had ‘always felt like an outsider’ in her own family (stock photo)
Tony told the podcast: ‘Claire replied immediately, giving her date of birth and the hospital she was born in. It was obvious what had happened. It was the same as my sister, Jessica. Clearly, the babies were swapped.’
Claire said the explanation had ‘answered a lot of questions’ in her life as she had ‘always felt like an outsider’ in her own family.
But for Joan, the revelations were agonising. ‘I had endured the loss of two stillborn daughters. When I do get a baby girl, it’s the wrong one. I wanted to know if she’d had a good life, if she was happy, if she was well,’ she said.
Tony invited Claire to meet them at the family home, where she forged an ‘immediate’ bond with Joan, who she now calls ‘Mum’.
‘We just embraced and we sobbed,’ Claire said.
‘And I looked at [Joan] and I said, ‘Oh my god, I’ve got your eyes. We have the same eyes. Oh my god, I look like someone.’
‘It was so bizarre, like we’d always known each other.’
In a tragic twist, Claire revealed that, in contrast to the supportive upbringing she should have had, her childhood was difficult.
Her parents divorced when she was two and she grew up in poverty, with homelessness and hunger. Claire also has two sons and three grandsons who have been welcomed into the family.
But for Jessica, who declined to be interviewed for the podcast, the revelations have been harder to handle. Her biological mother, who had raised Claire, died earlier this year having refused to accept Jessica could be her daughter.
It has also left Jessica estranged from the only family she has ever known.
‘It doesn’t matter how much we said, nothing has changed,’ Joan said. ‘Jessica’s response every time was, ‘Everything has changed.’ She’s still my daughter, and always will be.’
The hospital Trust which made the error, which was not identified, admitted full responsibility for the incident. It can shed no further light on the error as it no longer has records dating back that far.
NHS Resolution, which handles legal claims against the health service, has apologised to the families, and described it as a ‘unique and complex case’ and said it was working to establish how much compensation would be paid.
The Gift: Switched will air on BBC Radio 4 at 9.30am on Wednesday and is available to listen to now on BBC Sounds.
