Devastated mum seeks baby-swap daughters

She lost her first daughter because nurses at a government hospital mixed up babies just after they were born.

She didn’t know it at the time and raised the baby she was given as her own.

She lost that daughter two years ago when DNA tests proved the teenager was someone else’s child.

The traumatised mother is still looking for her daughters … her blood child, and the one she raised as hers.

She waits regularly under a tree for a car to take her to government-provided counselling.

She said she saw a red flag in the beginning after giving birth at the Tambo Memorial Hospital on the East Rand. The nurse gave her a baby girl with two name tags, two different surnames. She reported her confusion to the nurse who conducted her own investigation.

She said the nurse returned the baby to her and told her she had the right baby. She went home with the baby she believed was hers and told her partner what had happened.

Little did she know her life would change more than a decade later when an infidelity issue led to the biological truth of the child being revealed.

She explained: “I came home from an event and walked in on him cheating and then he told me he had a dream that the oldest of our four children was not his.

“He started saying our oldest daughter did not look like our other children. That was when we separated and I took him to maintenance court.”

Delaying the cases of the other children, the focus became primarily about the oldest daughter and after two DNA tests, it was revealed that neither she nor her partner were her biological parents.

She said that was when everything began to go downhill.

Crying uncontrollably, she told The Citizen about her horrific experience at the hospital, when she reported to them what happened … how they called her a thief and accused her of stealing her baby.

“They told me the files were destroyed so they couldn’t trace my baby and then when I asked for the nurse who helped me, they told me she was dead.

“I am so angry at everyone! From the nurse who gave me the wrong baby, to the doctor who said I stole my baby, to the social worker who said I should tell my child the truth, to the drivers who pick me up anywhere they like to take me to counselling!”

She explained that the social worker convinced her to tell her daughter that she was not her biological daughter and the girl ran away from home.

The mother later received a letter from her daughter, who expressed hatred and feelings of betrayal. She has not seen her for two years.

Since then she has been going to counselling and taking medication for stress but nothing seems to help. She feels even more helpless because her lawyer is not telling her about the progress of her case.

“Both of them turn 21 next year; when will they come home?” she cried.

– jenniffero@citizen.co.za

INFO

Bloom worries case is not isolated

DA provincial spokesperson on health Jack Bloom said: “This is one of the most tragic cases. There may even be cases that we don’t know about.

“I think the department needs to do whatever they can to assist the family. They also need to tighten up and focus on proper identification tags.”

He added: “I hope lessons have been learnt from this because although this happened a long time ago, these kinds of cases will follow the person for the rest of their lives. The department should make sure this does not happen again!”

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