Two mothers handed the wrong babies in a post-natal mix-up ten months ago have agreed to swap the child each thought was their own.

 

 

The girls, Nikola and Veronika, who are from the Czech Republic, have been nurtured, nursed, loved and cared for by parents who were not their biological mother and father.

 

 

Jaroslava, 25, and her real daughter Veronika, and Jaroslava Cermak, 25, real mother of Nikola

 

The mistake may never have come to light had Nikola’s parents, Libor Broza, 29, and Jaroslava Trojanova, 25, not undergone DNA testing.

 

“It was a total shock. I just cried for two hours solid and Jaroslava was inconsolable,” said Mr Broza, a lorry driver.

 

“It was just impossible to believe that this could happen. We have raised Nikola for the past 10 months. She’s a beautiful little girl who’s always smiling and it’s impossible to imagine her now living apart from us. But at the same time just 20 miles away lives our real daughter.”

 

A fortnight after receiving the DNA tests the couple discovered that their real daughter Veronika was living with Jaroslava Cermakova and her husband Jan in a village 20 miles away.

 

The couples met for the first time last week and agreed that they would gradually spend more time together before swapping Nikola and Veronika before Christmas.

 

“We have missed so many milestones in Veronika’s life: her first teeth and her first steps. Now we are determined not to miss her first birthday and her first Christmas,” said Mr Broza.

 

The couples believe that staff at Trebic hospital accidentally swapped their babies the day after they were born on Dec 9 last year.

 

The children were born within 18 minutes of one another.

 

The two mothers became suspicious after Nikola’s birth weight shrank from 7.26lbs to 5.72lbs overnight while Veronika’s weight rose by 1.65lbs.

 

Staff on duty at the time reassured them that the babies’ weights on the day they had been born had been recorded wrongly.

 

Mrs Cermakova has photographs showing that Veronika was tagged with just a number and no name on her arm while in hospital.

 

“The whole situation is just awful. What can I say? You love your daughter, but, at the end of the day, she is not yours.

 

"Nikola is my little angel and so far I don’t have any feelings for Veronika - I wish I could live with both of them,” said Jaroslava, 25, who is still breastfeeding Nikola.

 

Mr Broza said the couples now each planned to sue the hospital for about £250,000.

 

He became suspicious after jibes from his friends pointing out that he and his partner Jaroslava were both dark-haired and brown-eyed but had a blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby.

 

He secretly decided to have a DNA test which revealed that he was not Nikola’s father.

 

When Jaroslava insisted he must be the father she too had a DNA test which revealed that the child was not theirs.

 

Trebic Hospital near Brno in the south-east Czech Republic has so far declined to comment publicly while an investigation is ongoing.

 

But the hospital’s director Petr Mayer this week delivered a written apology to the couples.

 

Mr Broza said: “The Cermakova family are such nice people thankfully and we will support each other and get through this together. I am determined to have my real daughter back but it is such a difficult complicated process.

 

“We have to take it slowly and carefully. Jaroslava is taking it very badly. At the meeting with the Cermakova family she ran away and locked herself in the lavatory for a long time, she couldn’t face it. Her nerves are bad.”

 

 

This story has been niggling at me all evening.

 

I am not sure I could have swapped my baby at 10 months, but then I am not sure I couldn't.

 

What a nightmare.

 

Is swapping the right thing?

My gut goes with yes, they should. As hard as it would be after 10 months of loving the child you thought was your own - it'd be worse spending the rest of your life knowing the child you gave birth to is somewhere out there. It's worth the sacrifice IMO.

In the end I think they had to after the DNA test...

I couldn't live with nowing that I had someone elses baby (And the had mine) :mellow:

Edited October 10, 200717 yr by J♦Ñη¥

My gut goes with yes, they should. As hard as it would be after 10 months of loving the child you thought was your own - it'd be worse spending the rest of your life knowing the child you gave birth to is somewhere out there. It's worth the sacrifice IMO.

 

That sums it up very well. Beside, thes child would be bound to find out sooner or later. What would the child think if they knew you'd decided not to return them to their real parents? And your real child would potentially think you'd rejected them. I'm sure it would be very difficult to lose a child you've cared for for nearly a year. But I think if the parents decided not to do a swap, they'd alwayds regret it.

In the end I think they had to after the DNA test...

I couldn't live with nowing that I had someone elses baby (And the had mine) :mellow:

 

 

yes but how the hell do you let go of "your" baby :(

evidence that dna technology is a good thing them :lol:

This makes me wonder wether it is more important that a child is 'yours' by blood, than being 'yours' because you raised it.

 

I don't think it should matter about the blood, if you raise a child and bond with it shouldn't you love that child as if it was your 'blood'?

 

This is a terrible situation and I don't know what the right thing to do is, but I can't help but wonder how anyone could swap a child they have loved and cared for.

Edited October 10, 200717 yr by kindagood

Possibly the parents can stay in touch regularly and they can watch the other child grow up, maybe that would help them come to terms with this.

This must be such a awful situation for the parents, but if they didn't swap, they would always wonder about their biological child. As Brian says, it may help if both couples stay in touch, so they have at least some contact with the children they raised for 10 months.

mmm i was reading this in the paper here this morning!

 

i couldnt do that..... :S

evidence that dna technology is a good thing them :lol:

 

Evidence that DNA technology has its uses.

 

This makes me wonder wether it is more important that a child is 'yours' by blood, than being 'yours' because you raised it.

 

I don't think it should matter about the blood, if you raise a child and bond with it shouldn't you love that child as if it was your 'blood'?

 

This is a terrible situation and I don't know what the right thing to do is, but I can't help but wonder how anyone could swap a child they have loved and cared for.

 

They obviously had their suspicions or they wouldn't have had the DNA test. If they hadn't done it they would always have had that suspicion that the child wasn't their natural child. That said, it must have been a very difficult decision for both couples to make.

Evidence that DNA technology has its uses.

 

Exactly... This was an entirely voluntary process to arrive at the truth, totally different to an involuntary DNA database... Presumably the hospital would not be handing over the DNA records of the parents or children to the authorities after they were done with the testing.... -_-

 

This makes me wonder wether it is more important that a child is 'yours' by blood, than being 'yours' because you raised it.

 

I don't think it should matter about the blood, if you raise a child and bond with it shouldn't you love that child as if it was your 'blood'?

 

This is a terrible situation and I don't know what the right thing to do is, but I can't help but wonder how anyone could swap a child they have loved and cared for.

 

 

blood, definately is important. the childs inherant traits are those of family ancestory plus medical history.