Couple reunited with ‘Moses’, son lost for months in hospital mix-up
A BRITISH father who feared his newborn son had been swapped for another baby and sold to human traffickers has been reunited with his biological child.
Richard Cushworth, 41, and his wife Mercedes Casanellas believed the hospital in El Salvador where their son was born handed them the wrong baby, but it took months to rectify the mistake.
The family have now named their son Moses, after the biblical prophet who was hidden for three months.
The couple, who were missionaries in the Central American country, suspected the baby was not theirs because his skin looked darker than when he was born and they could see no family likeness. After taking the child home to Dallas, Texas, their doubts persisted. A DNA test showed that he was not their biological son.
Subsequent DNA tests on the four other boys born on the same day at the same hospital found their child had been given to different parents. The two couples swapped their infants in an emotional meeting in San Salvador hours after the test results arrived.
Luis Martinez, El Salvador’s attorney general, said the two babies had been accidentally mixed up. “We hope that this has not happened on other occasions,” he said. Mr Martinez added that there would be a review of protocols at hospitals. The couple’s doctor, Alejandro Guidos, was arrested and formally accused of exchanging their child for another, but protested his innocence after being bailed.
Mr Cushworth’s mother Lynne told the Daily Mail that the child was named Moses “because he was lost for three months and now he’s been found”. She added: “It’s very moving.”
Mr Cushworth and his wife had made a public appeal on local televi- sion, saying they feared their son may have been snatched by staff at the Ginecologico private hospital and sold to traffickers, who value lighter skinned children more highly.
Mr Cushworth’s father David, a former police officer from Bradford, said: “I can’t say for sure what really happened. We’ll have to see how it works out through the legal system before can be certain. I feel for the other family. We know nothing about them, except that they only just found out today that their baby isn’t really theirs.”