Families who had babies switched eligible for NHS compensation at birth in 1967

Families of two babies have reportedly been switched into one at birth NHS Hopital in 1967 are now lining up for compensation in the first case of its kind.

The baby girls, now adult women named in reports only as Claire and Jessica were transferred to an NHS West Midlands hospital shortly after birth but their families only discovered the mistake 55 years later, according to the BBC.

The truth was discovered only after the brother of one of the women took a DNA test in 2021, in which another woman was listed as his full sibling.

He contacted the woman and it soon became clear that she was another girl born in the same hospital around the same time.

It is extremely rare for incidents of babies to be switched at birth to occur. A 2017 Freedom of Information request found there were no recorded cases of babies being sent home to the wrong family.

According to the BBC, since the 1980s, newborns have been fitted with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags immediately after birth, which can be used to track their location.

In 1967 the mother of one of the women, named only as Joan, was admitted to West Midlands Hospital due to high blood pressure and was induced. Her daughter was born later that evening and taken to a daycare center so Joan could rest.

Just after midnight another girl was born and the next morning Joan had a baby who was not her biological child.

More than fifty years later, the two are reunited. When she met her daughter, Joan said: “It just felt right”

“I thought she looked just like me when I was younger,” she added.

The woman who is Joan’s biological daughter, named Claire in the reports, said she felt like she never belonged with her own family.

“I felt like an impostor… There were no similarities, in appearance or characteristics. I thought, ‘yes, I’m adopted.'” she said.

According to the BBC, Joan’s estranged daughter now calls her “mother,” but the daughter who grew up with her no longer does so.

“It makes no difference to me that Jessica is not my biological daughter,” she said. “She is still my daughter and always will be.”

The NHS trust that oversees the hospital has admitted liability, but the amount of compensation has yet to be agreed.

NHS Resolution, which handles complaints against the NHS, told the BBC the switch was a “terrible mistake” and that she had accepted legal liability.

It told the BBC that it was a “unique and complex case” and that work was still ongoing to agree the amount of compensation due.