BABY RETURN HOME AFTER NINE-MONTH
WAIT
ആശുപത്രിയില് നിന്നും കുഞ്ഞ് മാറിപ്പോയി; തിരിച്ചുകിട്ടിയത് ഒമ്പതു മാസത്തിന് ശേഷം
El Salvador baby swap
family return home after nine-month wait.Richard Cushworth and his Salvadoran
wife Mercy have only now been allowed to travel home to the US with their son
Moses after DNA tests proved he had been swapped with another boy.The couple
had been waiting for over eight months for a birth certificate.
Richard and Mercy
Cushworth relive
their El Salvador baby switch ordeal
|
Both babies were returned
to their real parents in September.Speaking exclusively to BBC Radio 4's Today
programme, the Cushworths described the pain of the long-running legal battle
and the handing over of a child they had nurtured since birth."The thought
that the baby I had been nursing, taken care of, loving him, bathing him - that
he was not mine. And then I had another thought which came with it - where's my
baby?" Mrs Cushworth said.
"So I had two
thoughts - what's going to happen with this baby, and where's my baby."
Mrs Cushworth gave birth
in her native El Salvador in May 2015 and her son spent his first night in a
hospital nursery. But the next day - unknown to her - she was given a different
baby to take home.The couple said it felt "wonderful" to finally be
back home together but they said they still had no idea how the swap had
happened.Charges against the doctor who delivered the baby were dropped two
weeks ago.Baby swap.Mercy and
Richard Cushworth with their son MosesIt is a tale that will
frighten every parent. A tale of the birth of a son, and of the joy of holding
that son to your breast. A tale in which that child, born prematurely, spends
his first night on a specialist ward, away from his mother. And the next day,
unknown to them, a different baby boy is brought to his parents.
'The pain - he was not
mine'Mrs Cushworth said she became suspicious when she noticed the features of
the newborn differed from those of the baby doctors had initially handed her
after she gave birth by emergency Caesarean."He was just passed
by me and I gave him a kiss and then he was taken to the nursery and that was
the last time I saw him," she said.
The next day nurses
brought her a baby and insisted it was hers, despite her immediate doubts.
She said she thought the
second baby's skin was darker.After returning to their home in Dallas, Texas,
Mrs Cushworth took a DNA test which said there was a 0% chance she could be the
mother of the baby she had been given.
"I just fell to the
floor," she said.The couple noticed that baby Jacob (centre) did not look
like either of themMr Cushworth, originally from Bradford, West Yorkshire,
added: "I just felt a panic that my only child was lost or stolen, I
didn't know."Both babies, then four months old, were quickly returned to
their biological parents but the couple said the happiness of getting their own
son back was matched with sadness at having to give the other boy, Jacob, away.
"We were rushed in
and we had to go really quickly and we barely had time to say goodbye. I got
all his clothes and we handed him in. That was the most difficult part of all
the situation," Mrs Cushworth said.
The family said they were
"overwhelmed and happy" for their ordeal to be over
Mr Cushworth said: "I
just accepted it as my child. Now I look back at the pictures around the time
we came to Dallas when he was three months old and I'm shocked that I never
suspected, because you can see that it's just obviously not my child if you
look at some of the pictures.
"I don't know how I
didn't ask myself. You just don't think about these things. Who thinks about
these things?"His wife added: "I
think we were in love with the baby. Even when I did the DNA tests, I thought I
was betraying him. That was the feeling I had - I'm betraying my son but I
cannot live with this."
Richard Cushworth his wife
Mercedes and baby
The couple has finally
been able to take their son Moses home to Texas
Mr Cushworth, said they
had spent nine months trying to get the right paperwork to bring their son home
to the US, a process that has almost bankrupted the family.
"It has forced our
family to be separated, it's been awful. I thought it would be a matter of
days, maybe weeks but not nine months. It has been dreadful."
They were helped by the
British Ambassador to El Salvador, Bernhard Garside.
"When we first got
involved it looked very much like an uphill struggle," Mr Garside said.
"My fear was we weren't really going to see a happy conclusion to
this."
He said swapping the
babies back was "the easy bit", but unravelling the paperwork took a
long time through the Salvadoran court system and was only completed thanks to
"good old fashioned diplomacy".
ജനിച്ചപ്പോഴേ ആശുപത്രിയില് നിന്നും മാറിപ്പോയ കുഞ്ഞിനെ ഒരു വര്ഷത്തിന് ശേഷം യഥാര്ത്ഥ മാതാപിതാക്കള്ക്ക് തിരിച്ചു കിട്ടി. ബ്രിട്ടീഷുകാരായ റിച്ചാര്ഡ് കുഷ്വര്ത്തിനും അയാളുടെ ഭാര്യയും എല് സാല്വദോറുകാരിയുമായ മേഴ്സിക്കുമാണ് ഒരു വര്ഷത്തിന് ശേഷം തങ്ങളുടെ രക്തത്തില് പിറന്ന കുഞ്ഞിനെ തിരിച്ചു കിട്ടിയത്. എല് സാല്വദോറിലെ ആശുപത്രിയില് നിന്നും മാറിപ്പോയ കുഞ്ഞിനെ ഡിഎന്എ പരിശോധന വഴിയായിരുന്നു തിരിച്ചറിഞ്ഞത്.
എട്ടു മാസത്തിന് ശേഷം രണ്ടു കുട്ടികളെയും അവരവരുടെ മാതാപിതാക്കളുടെ കയ്യില് തന്നെ തിരിച്ചുകിട്ടി. എന്നിരുന്നാലും എല്സാല്വദോറിലെ ആശുപത്രിയില് നിന്നും കുഞ്ഞിന്റെ ജനന സര്ട്ടിഫിക്കറ്റിനായി കാത്തിരിക്കുകയാണ് റിച്ചാഡും മേരിയും. 2015 മെയില് ആയിരുന്നു മേഴ്സി എല്സാല്വദോറില് കുഞ്ഞിന് ജന്മം നല്കിയത്. ശസ്ത്രക്രിയയ്ക്ക് ശേഷം കയ്യില് നല്കിയ കുഞ്ഞിനും പിന്നീട് കിടക്കയില് കൊണ്ടിട്ട കുഞ്ഞിനും തമ്മില് ത്വക്കിന്റെ നിറത്തിലും മറ്റു സവിശേഷതകളിലും നല്ല വ്യത്യാസം തോന്നിയെങ്കിലും നഴ്സുമാര് കുഞ്ഞ് മേഴ്സിയുടേത് തന്നെയാണെന്ന് ഉറപ്പു പറഞ്ഞതോടെ ദമ്പതികള് ആശുപത്രി വിടുകയായിരുന്നു.
ദമ്പതികള് കുഞ്ഞുമായി അമേരിക്കയിലെ ടെക്സാസിലെ വീട്ടിലേക്ക് പോയെങ്കിലും പിന്നീട് നടന്ന ഒരു ഡി എന്എ ടെസ്റ്റില് ഇപ്പോള് കയ്യിലുള്ള കുഞ്ഞ് മെഴ്സിയുടേതല്ലെന്ന് തെളിഞ്ഞു. അപ്പേഴേയ്ക്കും കുഞ്ഞിന് നാലുമാസം പ്രായമെത്തിയിരുന്നു. യഥാര്ത്ഥ കുഞ്ഞ് നഷ്ടമായതാണോ തട്ടിക്കൊണ്ടു പോകലിന് ഇരയായതാണോ എന്നായിരുന്നു മാതാപിതാക്കളുടെ സംശയം. അന്വേഷണത്തിനൊടുവിലാണ് റിച്ചാഡിനും മെഴ്സിക്കും കുഞ്ഞിനെ മാറിപ്പോയ പോലെ തന്നെ തങ്ങളുടെ കയ്യില് ഇരിക്കുന്ന കുഞ്ഞിനും അവകാശികള് രംഗത്ത് വന്നത്. ഒടുവില് ആശുപത്രിയില് വെച്ച് കുഞ്ഞ് മാറിപ്പോയതാണെന്ന് ഇരു ദമ്പതികളും തിരിച്ചറിഞ്ഞ് വേണ്ട രേഖകളെല്ലാം ശരിയാക്കി അവരവരുടെ യഥാര്ത്ഥ കുഞ്ഞുങ്ങളെ വെച്ചുമാറിയപ്പോള് മാസം ഒമ്പതു കഴിഞ്ഞു.
Prof. John Kurakar
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