A story that recalls the film “Life is a long quiet river”. In Spain, a woman, now 19, was exchanged at birth with another baby. She is now claiming compensation.
The case dates back to 2002 when at San Millan Hospital in Logrono (north), staff confused two little girls born on the same day five hours apart, and both placed in an incubator.
The babies were handed over to the “wrong” families and grew up unsuspecting. Until, fifteen years later, a dispute over child support led one of the two girls to take DNA tests. Result: neither his father nor his mother are his biological parents.
The 19-year-old girl is now claiming three million euros. She believes she has suffered “immense damage, which will last a lifetime and will never be repaired,” said her lawyer, Maître José Saez-Morga. However, not sure that this argument can convince the court.
“A human error”, for the hospital
The authorities indeed plead a “human error” and are only prepared to pay 215,000 euros, still according to Master Saez-Morga. “This is a one-time human error which today could no longer happen,” explained Sara Alba, the regional health manager.
“We could not determine who was at the origin of this error, the computer systems of the time not having as much detail as today,” she said.
The other girl has so far not lodged a complaint. The authorities said they were “available to families to provide them with all the necessary support”.