Two moms are speaking out as they grapple with an unimaginable revelation — that nearly 40 years ago, in 1988, their sons were allegedly switched at birth.
Elizabeth O’Toole said she felt shocked when she learned that her son, Jeremy Morrison, wasn’t biologically her child.
“It felt surreal,” she said. “I mean it really didn’t feel real until I met Kyle in person.”
Morrison said he was swapped at birth with Kyle Bylin, who was the only other baby born at Unity Medical Center in North Dakota, on Jan. 26, 1988, according to the lawsuit filed by the families in state court last week.
The two birth announcements even appeared next to each other in the local newspaper.
“I would like to know if this was done intentionally. I mean, you would think with only two babies it wouldn’t be too hard to get them to the right families, but apparently it was,” Morrison told CBS News.
The hospital said it no longer has the medical records from 1988.
“While we deeply sympathize with the men and their families, we have found no evidence to support claims that Unity Medical Center or its staff were responsible for what occurred,” the hospital said in a statement.
“It upsets me that the hospital is trying to pawn this off and say that basically, ‘oh, nothing happened here,'” Evelyn Newton, the mother who raised Bylin, said.
Shocking discovery
The discovery happened when Bylin took an at-home DNA test that he received during a Christmas gift exchange. His results matched his DNA to Morrison’s aunt, whose DNA was on Ancestry.com’s registry.
“Matched with both my aunts, matched with my mom who only had one kid. It was kind of just a nail in the coffin, I guess,” Morrison said. His own DNA ended up matching with Bylin’s parents
Morrison, who now lives in Colorado, said it’s been a “rollercoaster of emotions” that he describes as “a blessing but also a curse.”
“I also have the family I created for myself, too. You know, my parents, Liz and Terry, taught me to be independent and to be resilient and that never let anything stop you in life and just keep going, as no matter how hard it gets, you always have family in … someone,” he said.
He would like an apology from the hospital “realizing that they did make a mistake, that there was only two babies there and they went home with the opposite families. The hospital is 100% at fault.”
