MADRID (AP) – The Spanish health authorities blame human error for the move of two little girls to a maternity ward almost 20 years ago after one of them accidentally discovered through a DNA test as a teenager that she was not the daughter of her alleged child Parents.
“It was a human error and we couldn’t find out who was to blame,” said Sara Alba, health director for the northern La Rioja region in Spain, at a press conference on Tuesday.
“The systems were different back then and not as computerized as they are today,” said Alba and assured that this could no longer happen.
The newborns were mixed up in 2002 after being born five hours apart in a hospital in La Rioja. They were both in incubators because they were born underweight.
The 19-year-old woman, who first discovered she had been turned over to the wrong parents, is demanding € 3 million ($ 3.5 million) in compensation from local health officials.
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Alba, the health director, spoke after the local newspaper La Rioja published a report on the switch on Tuesday.
The other woman, who was handed over to the wrong parents, had been informed of the mistake, the newspaper said. None of the women were identified.
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