Switched at Birth

56 Years ago, two Oregon women, Kay Rene (Reed) Qualls and DeeAnn (Angell) Shafer, were born at Heppner’s Pioneer Memorial Hospital. While both girls were being bathed they were accidentally switched and returned to the wrong mothers. The mistake was not discovered until the summer of 2008, when a former neighbor of the Angell family, and a friend of the Reed family, contacted Kay’s older brother, Bobby.

The 86 year old woman told Bobby that she “needed to get something offer her chest”. She claimed Marjorie Angell, DeeAnn’s mom, had insisted she’d come home with the wrong baby – nurses had taken her baby and the Reed baby, both bald and weighing about 6 pounds, and bathed them together, when they returned with the babies, they’d been switched.

Both families compared stories and learned that rumors of the switch had been talked about for years. They decided to preform a sibling-ship test to determine the truth as both sets of parents were deceased. DeeAnn and Kay tested with two of Kay’s purported siblings and discovered that they had, in fact, been switched at birth!

It should comfort some to know that, while mistakes can happen, it is highly unlikely that this type of oversight could be made at a hospital in this day and age, as there are many precautions taken. Furthermore, should a mother have concerns, she is now able to do purchase and perform a maternity DNA test.