Two babies were swapped in a Hungarian hospital – Who is to blame?

Two newborns were accidentally switched in the obstetrics department of the hospital in Hódmezővásárhely recently. Fortunately, the error was discovered rather quickly, and both babies are with their own families now.

Although a common plot device in soap operas, switched-at-birth incidents are not common since hospitals take the safety of newborns very seriously. Nonetheless, baby mix-ups still occur occasionally, mostly due to human error. In this case, one of the babies had already been taken home by the other child’s parents when the error was discovered. After receiving their newborn and all of the necessary papers, the parents hurried to the taxi and went home, the father explained to Szeged365. They had just arrived home when the hospital called them that their son was still there.

The parents immediately checked the name on the baby’s wristband and realised that they had taken home someone else’s child from the hospital.

After waiting for half an hour for their taxi, the parents were on their way back to the hospital in Hódmezővásárhely. “It was the longest half an hour of my life,” said the father. Fortunately, their baby had not yet been taken home by the other family living in Makó (the distance between the two towns is approximately 30 km).