Four-year-old children swapped at birth in South African hospital blunder ‘cannot be returned to their natural parents as they are too attached to their ‘adopted’ mums’
- Children were swapped at Tambo Memorial Hospital in Boksburg in 2010
- Boy and girl swapped after midwife mixed up files or name tags during 'very busy' day
- Legal expert says they should stay with 'adopted' parents who raised them
- It would mean parents would cut legal ties with their biological children who are both four
- Children said to have developed 'very strong' bonds with 'adopted' familes
Two children swapped at birth in a South African hospital blunder cannot be returned to their natural parents because they are too attached to their ‘adopted' mothers, a report has found.
The biological mothers of the four-year-old children learnt last year that their babies had been swapped at the Tambo Memorial Hospital in Boksburg in 2010.
It only became clear an error had been made when one of the mothers, from East Rand in South Africa, attempted to claim maintenance payments from the man she thought was her child’s father.
Two children swapped at birth in a South African hospital blunder cannot be returned to their natural parents because they are too attached to their ‘adopted' mothers, a report has found (file picture)
But according to sowetanlive.co.za, paternity tests then revealed that he was not the father – and she was not the mother.
A legal expert has now recommended that the boy and girl should stay with the parents who have raised them since they were born, the website says.
A report, drawn up by the University of Pretoria's Centre for Child Law director Ann Skelton, has now been handed to a court for consideration.
If accepted it would see the mothers cutting legal ties with their biological children – although they would have contact with them.
But they would then be treated as adoptive parents of the children they have been raising, sowetanlive.co.za reports.
Skelton said the swap is likely to have happened after the midwife overseeing the births mixed up the files or the name tags of the babies on a ‘very busy’ day.
She said that it was the first case she had heard of in South Africa where babies of different genders had been swapped adding that the families have a damages claim.
One of the mothers had wanted her biological child back when she first found out about the blunder, but later acknowledged that it may not be in the youngster’s best interests, the report said.
The other woman was left needing hospital treatment for shock at learning the daughter she had been raising was not hers.
Skelton wrote that the second woman’s former boyfriend had been left ‘devastated’ by the news.
‘He said that the shock of the news … had left him devastated. He compared it to the loss of all his limbs,’ she wrote.
She added: ‘The parents have suffered enormously and continue to be under considerable stress. The children are not yet aware of the problem, but the latest assessments indicate they are picking up on their mothers’ anxieties.
‘Although financial assistance will not solve all the problems, it will ease their current difficulties.’
Psychologists and medical experts are helping the families, who have ‘very strong’ bonds with the children they have been caring for from birth.
The parents are to be offered the opportunity to respond to the recommendations and those involved are due to agree on a court date to consider Skelton’s findings.
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