Here’s one to cause any new parent nightmares

Two boys, one Saudi and one Turkish, will swap homes four years after a hospital gave them to the wrong parents, a Saudi newspaper said Wednesday. [Reuters]

The Turkish father claimed that his son wasn’t his but authorities didn’t believe him until DNA tests confirmed what he feared. The father of the other child didn’t see anything odd.

My guess is this rarely, if ever, happens in American hospitals. At least in the hospitals I’ve been to, newborns are tagged with barcoded ankle bracelets immediately after birth, and the baby is entered into the system. So much to that if someone even as tries to take the child out of the labor and delivery/nursery department, a security breach will sound alarm.

But in other countries or hospitals where things may not be high-tech, then infant mix-ups, or snatchings, could happen. Some countries have resorted to using barcodes,

[source: babycenter]

Tags: infant, mix-up, hospitals, identity, DNA, news, barcodes