How 2 Women Learned They Were Switched at Birth 24 Years After Hospital Mix-up Via Facebook

Two girls, Lorena and Antonella, born just 11 minutes apart in a maternity ward in Puglia, Italy, via Caesarean section, have learned the heartbreaking truth they were mistakenly switched at birth 24 years after the hospital mix-up.

According DailyMail, after their birth, they were taken to the nursery and labelled with bracelets consecutively numbered 47 and 48, before they were given to their mothers, who smiled as they looked at their baby daughters for the first time.

But unbeknown to the two women, who had been knocked out with anaesthetic for the birth, the babies they were given were not their own… and everyone’s lives were set on dramatically different paths.

One of the girls, Lorena Cobuzzi, told how, 24 years on, she was given the deeply distressing news by the two people she thought were her parents that she was not their real daughter.

‘I felt physically sick’, said Lorena, now 26, remembering the day at her family home two years ago when her life changed irreversibly.

‘They sat me down and told me they had something important to tell me. They said there had been two families at the hospital that day. They said the babies had been swapped. The feeling was terrible – I didn’t know who I was anymore. I didn’t know who to call mum and dad.’

What Lorena can’t explain and has never got to the bottom of, is how the Caterina and Michele Cobuzzi, her parents for 24 years, had discovered that she was not their real daughter.

They told her they had seen a photo of Antonella and were struck by the resemblance of her to Caterina, who is now proven to be Antonella’s biological mother.

In the same photograph, Elisa, the girl Antonella thought was her sister, looked just like Lorena, who she now knows is her biological sister.

The photo is said to have been from Facebook, although the Cobuzzis later told Lorena they had contacted her biological mother Loreta and asked for a family photo.

‘Antonella, who has naturally curly hair, looked exactly like my official mother, Caterina. While Elisa looked exactly like me – it was like seeing myself in a photo,’ Lorena said.

It is thought that the Cobuzzis may have had their suspicions that Lorena was not their daughter and had decided to investigate.

But the couple have never told Lorena how they came to wonder that she might not be their daughter.

After seeing the picture and establishing the coincidence of the girls sharing a birthday at the same Canosa Hospital, they told her they decided to get a DNA test which proved Antonella was their biological daughter.

As a result of the maternity ward mix up, both girls and their families are suing the Italian health authorities for a combined €22 million.

Lorena’s lawyer, Stefano di Feo said: ‘It’s the first case of this kind. Of course babies have been swapped accidentally at hospitals before. But this is the first time anyone has found out after 24 years.’

Growing up, Lorena said she never suspected that she someone else’s daughter.

She revealed: ‘I never had any doubts. A few times people pointed out that I didn’t look like anyone in the family. But no one ever gave it any weight. Lots of people don’t look like their parents and take their looks from a grandmother or whatever…when I have children I’ll be very watchful in hospital so they don’t make any more mistakes.’