Austrian switched at birth unlikely to meet 'real' mum

http://www.thelocal.at/20160722/baby-switch-victim-unlikely-ever-to-meet-real-mum



Austrian switched at birth unlikely to meet 'real' mum


Published: 22 Jul 2016 10:39 GMT+02:00


An Austrian who may have been switched at birth is unlikely to ever meet her birth parents after a call for hundreds of women to come forward and be tested failed to find another switched baby.


The 25-year-old woman and her parents only found out last year they were not actually related after the daughter and mother donated blood.

They believe staff at LKH Graz likely made a mistake and switched two babies after they born, although the hospital say there is no evidence of malpractice.


Prosecutors publicised the case earlier this year and appealed for 200 women who were born around the same time - between October 15th and November 20th 1990 - in the same hospital to take DNA tests to see if they were switched at birth.

In seven months, only 30 of the women have come forward and taken DNA tests, with no further evidence of a switch found so far.

Both the 25-year-old and the parents who brought her up want to sue Steiermark Hospital Association (KAGes) for damages and, above all, to establish that the switch actually took place at LKH Graz.

According to their lawyer Gunther Ledolter, who wrote to KAGes two months ago, hospital bosses have not explicitly admitted that the switch took place in the hospital. Previously, they suggested it may have happened later on.

Ledolter did not confirm how much the family are seeking from the hospital, although media have speculated it could be as high as €255,000, or €85,000 each for the daughter, mother and father.

A spokesperson for LKH told ORF that an out-of-court settlement is at the moment not possible.

“The fact alone that the relevant person is not the birth daughter and that an unnoticed baby swap is likely to have taken place at birth, is not sufficient to accept that it was due to the actions of company employees,” the hospital said in a statement.

Meanwhile the mother has adopted the 25-year-old, who is unlikely now to meet her birth mother or father.

http://www.thelocal.at/20160311/a-second-baby-switch-at-graz-hospital-austria


Second baby switch at Austrian hospital


Published: 11 Mar 2016 09:26 GMT+01:00


Two mothers who had just given birth in a hospital in Graz were handed the wrong newborn babies after a nurse switched them by accident.

The incident took place in the same hospital that was thought to be involved in a baby switch 25-years-ago that only came to light in January after a woman donating blood found she had a different blood type to her parents.

A DNA test later confirmed that she was in fact not related to them.

The latest baby switch that happened on Thursday in the LKH University Hospital in Graz was the result of a nurse placing the babies into the wrong cribs.

The error was only realised when a mother who had given birth to a baby boy went to wrap her child up before breast-feeding and noticed that ‘he’ was now a ‘she’.

“The babies were unfortunately laid down into the wrong beds by the supervising nurse,” said the hospital’s Operations Director Gebhard Falzberger, adding that the mother of the boy noticed the switch almost immediately.

As one of the mothers suffers from a chronic infectious disease, one of the switched babies had to be vaccinated, although the hospital said this was a precautionary measure and the chances of infection were “highly unlikely”.

The hospital also said that the mix up would have eventually been picked up during one of the twice-daily checks carried out by nurses, who check that information on the tags given to babies after they are born corresponds to the mother they are with.

Following the revelations that a baby-switch may have taken place 25-years-ago, the hospital posted a message on their website earlier this year that said that due to these checks the probability of babies now being switched at birth in hospitals “is generally very low".

After the hospital offered DNA tests to women born between October 15th and November 20th 1990 in LKH Graz, around 30 people have come forward but so far no DNA match has been found.

What a nightmare! It's hard to see how this can happen, even once.