Two men who spent nearly four decades living with the wrong biological families are suing a North Dakota hospital after an at-home DNA test revealed that they had apparently been switched shortly after birth.
Kyle Bylin and Jeremy Morrison were both born at Unity Medical Center in Grafton, North Dakota, on January 26, 1988. According to their lawsuit, they were the only two babies delivered at the hospital that day.
Somehow, each infant allegedly went home with the other’s parents.
The mistake remained hidden for 36 years until Bylin participated in a Christmas gift exchange and selected an at-home DNA testing kit.
When the results arrived, Bylin was connected to a woman identified as his biological aunt—but she belonged to the Morrison family.
The unexpected match started a chain of questions that neither family was prepared to answer. Morrison subsequently submitted his own DNA sample, and additional testing reportedly confirmed the unbelievable truth: The two men had been raised by each other’s biological parents.
Bylin said his mind was “completely blown” by the discovery. The possibility of a hospital switch had never occurred to either family.
Morrison became convinced after seeing a photograph of Bylin’s brother and noticing an unmistakable family resemblance.
The discovery forced both men and their parents to reconsider nearly four decades of birthdays, holidays, graduations and family milestones.
The parents who raised the men remain their parents in every emotional and practical sense. At the same time, each family must now confront the knowledge that its biological son grew up in another household.
Both men have met members of their biological families, although the reunions have reportedly been emotional and somewhat awkward. Bylin and Morrison have communicated by telephone but have not yet met one another face-to-face.
Morrison, who now lives in Colorado and works as a welding inspector, said the DNA results cannot erase the life he has lived or the love he received from the family that raised him.
The families have now filed a lawsuit accusing Unity Medical Center of negligence and inflicting severe emotional distress. They contend that hospital personnel gave each newborn to the wrong parents and failed to notice or correct the mistake.
One particularly striking piece of evidence may have survived all these years: Bylin reportedly still possesses a hospital identification bracelet bearing the wrong family name.
Unity Medical Center has acknowledged that the two men were born at the hospital on the same day but denies responsibility for the alleged switch. The hospital says nearly four decades have passed, the relevant medical records no longer exist and the employees who worked there at the time are no longer available to explain what happened.
The hospital has asked that the case be dismissed and argues that there is no surviving evidence establishing that its staff caused the mix-up.
The lawsuit seeks compensation for the relationships and experiences the families say were permanently taken from them.
For Bylin, the discovery began with a randomly selected Christmas present that was supposed to provide a little family-history information.
Instead, it revealed that the family history he had known for his entire life belonged, at least biologically, to someone else.
Source: Associated Press
