The families of two babies who were switched at birth three years ago have reportedly agreed to allow the children to be reared in their present homes rather than start a custody battle. The young parents of one of the children were killed in an accident last month before the mistaken identities were revealed.
Visitation rights will be worked out so that each family can get to know the other's child, according to USA Today which first reported that Callie Marie Johnson was not the child of Ms Paula Johnson who believed she had given birth to her at a hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia, on June 29th, 1995.
But she has now learned that her child was wrongly given to another mother who gave birth to a baby girl soon afterwards in the same hospital.
This mother was Tamara Whitney Rogers, who brought home the baby of Ms Johnson and called her Rebecca. Ms Rogers was only 16 when she gave birth and was the fiance of Mr Kevin Chittum, a carpenter in Buena Vista also in Virginia and about 70 miles from Ruckersville, where Ms Johnson lives.
Ms Rogers and Mr Chittum died in a car crash on the July 4th holiday which killed seven people. Since the accident, Rebecca has been cared for by the families of the two dead parents.
The accident happened just a day after Ms Johnson was informed by the University of Virginia Medical Centre, where she had given birth, that Callie was not her biological child. Ms Johnson had requested a DNA test to establish the paternity of Callie's presumed father and force him to make child support payments.
Three weeks later, after the hospital had investigated the matter using blood tests, the relatives of Rebecca were told that she was really the child of Ms Johnson.
The hospital suspects that the switch was not accidental and has called in the police to assist in the investigation. The hospital normally tags both the baby and the mother immediately after birth. Mr Robert Cantrell, vice-president and provost of health sciences at the university hospital, said this week: "We are 99.9 per cent certain that it did not happen accidentally but if that's true you have to ask yourself, `Why would anybody switch a baby? What would be the motive?"'
The families are exchanging pictures and trading stories about the toddler, a tearful Ms Johnson said yesterday. She said she had no intention of giving up Callie, but was seeking genetic tests to confirm that Rebecca was her biological daughter. "My main concern is the welfare and the well-being of these two children , that they maintain a happy and a healthy life, whether it be with their biological parents or whether it be with the parents that are just raising them," she said.