Woman Seeks 3 Million Euro For Hospital Baby Mixup

A teenage girl is seeking more than €3 million in damages from the La Rioja regional health authorities after it was revealed that she had been “accidentally switched” with another newborn at the hospital and handed to the wrong parents.

The incident is supposed to have happened in the maternity ward in 2002 but only came to light when the teenager, now 19, discovered through a DNA test that her presumed parents were not blood related.

The unidentified victim was handed to parents who had a “difficult family environment” and was raised by her maternal grandmother

Sara Alba, the regional health chief said: ” “It was a human error and we haven’t been able to find out who was to blame.”

“The systems back then were different and weren’t as computerized as they are now,” Alba said, offering assurances it couldn’t happen again.

The newborns were mixed up in 2002 after being born five hours apart at a hospital in La Rioja. They were both in incubators because they were born underweight.

It is understood that the regional health authorities are seeking to settle the issue and have offered the victim 250,000 in damages.

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