The hospital baby switch was discovered two decades later with a DNA test

MADRID (AP) – Spanish health authorities blame human error for changing two girls in a maternity ward almost 20 years ago, after one of them discovered by chance through a DNA test when she was a teenager that she did not she was the daughter of her alleged parents.

“It was a human error and we could not find out who was to blame,” Sara Alba, head of health in the northern Spanish region of La Rioja, said on Tuesday.

He spoke after the local newspaper La Rioja published a report on the change on Tuesday.

The babies were mixed in 2002 after being born five hours apart at a hospital in La Rioja. Both were in incubators because they were born with little weight.

One went to live with people she believed were her parents, while the other was raised by a woman she believed was her grandmother, according to The Guardian.

The switch was discovered by the latter girl about four years ago after a DNA test involving a child support complaint. It was determined that the girl was not biologically related to any of her alleged parents.

Now 19, the woman who discovered she had been given the wrong parents is demanding € 3 million ($ 3.5 million) in compensation from local health authorities. His lawyer said his client had suffered “such gross negligence that he speaks for himself,” The Guardian reports.

So far he has only been offered compensation of 215,000 euros ($ 254,000), according to the BBC.

“The systems back then were different and not as computerized as they are now,” Alba said, offering assurances that something like this could not happen again.

The other woman who was handed over to the wrong parents has been informed of the mistake, according to the newspaper La Rioja. None of the women were identified.

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