Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Oregon Women Switched at Birth


HEPPNER, Ore. — On a spring day in 1953, two baby girls were born at Pioneer Memorial Hospital in eastern Oregon. They grew up happily, got married, had kids of their own and became grandparents. Then last summer their lives were turned upside down.

Kay Rene Reed Qualls found out that she and DeeAnn Angell Shafer were switched at birth.

They recently met for the first time and underwent DNA tests after a woman who knew both their mothers called Qualls' brother with her suspicion.

Qualls' brother, Bobby Reed, said the 86-year-old woman knew his mother and had also lived next door to the Angell family.

"She said she had something she had to get off her chest," he told the East Oregonian newspaper in a story published Monday.

The woman, whom he declined to identify by name, told him that his mother, Marjorie Angell, had insisted back in 1953 she had been given the wrong baby after the nurses returned from bathing the two newborns, but her concerns were brushed off.

AP copyrighted: CLICK TO READ THE FULL STORY

1 comment:

  1. I read about this the other day. It's sad that these two families had to go through this situation.

    ReplyDelete