BABY GIRLS SWITCHED AT BIRTH DUE COMPENSATION 55 YEARS LATER – The NHS trust which oversees the hospital admitted liability
2 baby girls who were switched at birth in 1967 at an NHS hospital are set to receive compensation in a first-of-its-kind case in the UK.
The then newborns, who are now both grown women, were switched at West Midlands hospital shortly after birth. It was only when the sibling of one of the women took a DNA home testing kit that the truth came to light – 55 years later.
Cases of babies being accidentally switched in hospitals are found to be very rare. A 2017 Freedom of Information request stated there were no documented cases of babies being given to the wrong parents.
Before the 1980s, maternity wards identified babies with handwritten tags and cards placed on cots. Since then, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags have been used to identify newborns on wards.
The NHS trust which oversees the hospital admitted liability but the level of compensation is yet to be agreed.
