Woman sues over birth swap error

A woman has demanded compensation from health authorities in northern Spain after discovering she was mistakenly swapped at birth with another baby 19 years ago, local reports say.

The woman was mixed up with a baby who was born on the same day in 2002 at a hospital in Logroño, south of Bilbao.

Both babies were put in incubators before being handed to the wrong parents.

A regional government has acknowledged the mix-up, blaming “human error”.

On Tuesday the health minister for the government of La Rioja, Sara Alba, said it was not possible to conclude who had made the mistake.

She said it would “be impossible for something like this to happen again today” because procedures for identifying babies were “safe and reliable”.

The case was first reported by the La Rioja newspaper, which said one of the women is seeking €3m (£2.4m; $3.5m) in damages from the region’s ministry of health. The ministry has only offered compensation of €215,000, reports say.

The other woman involved has been informed about the situation but has not made a complaint, the El País newspaper reported.

The complainant, who has not been named, was raised by a woman she believed to be her grandmother.

When the grandmother sued the presumed father over child care in 2017, a court ordered a DNA test.

This confirmed the man was not the child’s biological father, and a later test revealed her presumed mother was not a genetic relation either.

At 16, the girl requested help from lawyers, who pressed health authorities to investigate the circumstances of her birth.

The investigation suggested there was only one baby the girl could have been switched with.

Now 19, the woman is awaiting the result of a DNA test to confirm the identity of her biological parents as prosecutors investigate the case.

Ms Alba said the regional government would respect the legal process and offer the families whatever support they needed.

(BBC)