Switched at Birth: Two Families Raise Two Daughters Together After Hospital Mix Up

A story of two babies switched at birth due to a hospital error is indeed horrifying. But this was what happened to Caterina Alagna and Melissa Fodera of Italy.

The girls were already three years old when the mixup was discovered. Then came the painful decision of taking the toddlers away from the families they’d ever known.

But instead of tearing the families apart, the collective parents found a way to raise their daughters together—under one roof.

Marinella Alagna and Gisella Fodera gave birth to baby girls 15 minutes apart as the clock ticked toward midnight on December 31, 1998.

During the New Year’s Eve celebrations, the on-duty nurses accidentally switched out the two babies.

When it was time for the mothers and newborns to head home, Marinella and Gisella both questioned why the infants weren’t wearing the clothing they’d brought, but the hospital staff assured them it was merely a wardrobe confusion.

Three years later, as Marinella was picking up her daughter Melissa from nursery school, she saw something that shook her to the core. Another child, Caterina by name, bore an uncanny resemblance to her two other biological daughters.

When she recognized the little girl’s mother, Gisella, as the woman she’d shared the maternity ward with, the clothing incident popped into her mind—and something clicked.

The swaddling hadn’t been switched… the babies had.

Fifteen days later, DNA tests confirmed her suspicions. It was a choice neither one of them wanted to face.

“I challenge anyone to raise a daughter for three years then give her up over a simple mistake,” Gisella said in an interview reported by the Times UK.

But rather than simply make the swap back, the families thought of a better way to solve the issue. Both girls and both sets of parents began spending time together in one house. The arrangement worked out so well that, when the two families separated on the advice of experts for a six-month trial, the plan was quickly dropped.

The switch was explained to Melissa and Caterina when they were 8 years old. The only real complication they’ve faced is the issue with their legal names. Emotionally, however, the two girls, now grown to young adulthood, couldn’t be better.

Mauro Caporiccio, author of the book Sisters Forever, also recently released as a film by RAI TV told the Times, “The girls effectively grew up with four parents and eight grandparents, and the experiment worked… Today they are more like twins than sisters and there is a kind of love which binds the two families.”

Source: Good News Network