A woman in Binh Phuoc Province has discovered she was given the wrong baby three years after giving birth.

Binh Long Town General Hospital

Nguyen Thi Thu Trang said when she was pregnant with her youngest child, she stayed in the hospital room with another woman also from Hon Quan District.

On January 2013, she gave birth to a girl and 15 minutes later, the other woman also gave birth to a girl. Then both of the children were taken for their first bath. Trang was released five days later. The other woman was released one day earlier. They didn't know their houses are only five kilometres away.

"As the child grew older, she did not look like anyone in the family at all. Many people ridiculed us and we had family troubles and misunderstandings," said Trang's husband, Vu Dinh Khiem.

In May, Trang went to Phuoc An Commune to sell bread and recognised the woman who shared hospital room with her. The woman was carrying a small girl who has similar looks to Trang's oldest child. Hearing the story, Trang's father encouraged her to do DNA test and the result was negative.

Trang tried to tell the family of the other woman that they took the wrong baby but the other family thought that Trang wanted to steal their daughter. She had to go to Binh Long Town General Hospital to find a solution and the hospital agreed to carry out DNA tests for both children.

Tran Dinh Cuong, deputy director of Binh Long Town General Hospital said both girls were born almost at the same time, on the same day and weighted three kilos. It is suspected that the nurses mistook the girls while giving them first bath.

He said, "After receiving the DNA tests on June 24, we realised that we committed a severe mistake. We had invited both families and local authorities for a meeting right away. We are also negotiating compensation for the families."

The hospital proposed to give the families 10 months of basic wages as well as other fees for the trauma. However, they haven't reached any consensus on the compensation and time to swap the daughters.

The hospital is having meetings to decide on the punishments for the nurses and other people who had shift on that day.

Dtinews