It all began to unfold one month ago when Marinella went to the kindergarten to pick up her little three-year-old. To her surprise, the nursery teacher handed her the wrong child. When she protested, the teacher apologised, adding by way of explanation:
"But look at this little one, she is the image of you".
Marinella (not her real name) did look. To her astonishment, she saw just how the nursery teacher had made her mistake. The child did indeed bear a remarkable resemblance to her. Something stirred in Marinella and her mind went back three years to the New Year's Eve of 1998, the night her own little Chiara was born at the Abele Ajello Hospital of Mazara Del Vallo in Sicily.
She recalled a furious row between a parent and a hospital nurse, with the latter being accused of having switched babies around in their hospital cots. She also recalled that the hospital nurses had, by mistake, at first dressed her Chiara in baby clothes meant for another.
Her suspicions now fully aroused, Marinella then arranged for herself, her husband, Franco, and baby Chiara to undergo DNA blood tests. The result confirmed their worst nightmare. Chiara simply could not be her natural child.
At this point, Marinella and Franco approached the parents of Daniela, the child who so strongly resembled Marinella. Daniela's parents, Francesco and Gisella, also agreed to undergo DNA tests. Again the result was conclusive - Daniela could not be their natural child. In the meantime, all four parents had not failed to notice their own physical similarities with the "other" child.
When granddad Baldassarre, father of Francesco, then returned to the Abele Ajello Hospital, the final proof was provided. Consultation of hospital records showed that little Chiara and Daniela had been born within a quarter of an hour of one another on the night of New Year's Eve, 1998. Furthermore, comparison of the blood tests on the new-borns and on the now nearly three-year-olds left no doubt - the two babies had been mistakenly switched around.
Dr Antonino Adamo, head of the hospital's paediatric unit, could only admit the error, saying: "This is a small hospital where, normally, we only have, at most, one birth per day. On New Year's Eve three years ago, there was a lot of confusion not just because we had fewer nurses on duty because of the festivities but also because of the unusual event of two simultaneous births . . . I'm afraid, though, there is no doubt about it, the two babies were swapped around . . ."
The inevitable sense of disorientation and shock in the two families has been immense. Under Italian law, the state prosecutor's office in Marsala has now opened an investigation into the "legitimacy" of each child. In time (probably some long time), a judge will almost certainly call on both sets of parents to "renounce paternity" of one child and "admit paternity" of the other.
In the meantime, both families are learning to deal with the nightmare prospect of having to "hand over" the child they have loved as their own for the last two years and 10 months.
Fortunately, this is one Italian story that may have, if not a happy, at least a loving ending. The two families live within 300 metres of each other in the same quartiere of Mazara Del Vallo - hence the fact that Daniela and Chiara went to the same creche. Both families come from the same income grouping, with similarly modest earnings - Franco works on fishing boats, while Francesco is a bricklayer.
From the moment they realised what had happened, both families opted to spend as much time as possible together in order both to help themselves through their collective trauma and also, pragmatically, to begin preparing the children for the inevitable day (no date has yet been fixed, obviously) when the two children will "change" families (again, but intentionally this time).
Fortunately, too, both families seem to have the same long-term views about their dilemma. As Chiara's grandfather put it: "The other family see it just the way we do. Blood should be with its own blood . . . When we saw the other child, our hearts stopped. We wanted her back immediately. She looks just the image of my son and my daughter-in-law".
While the Italian legal system goes about its slow ways, probably preparing to indict hospital personnel, the two families already appear to be making the very best out of a bad mistake. Chiara and Daniela, reportedly, have been having a great time playing together, day after day.
When asked why the two families had immediately chosen to spend their evenings (and last weekend) together, Francesco explained: "We're all doing it so as to be with and get to know our `real' child. But we're also doing it so as to stay linked to our (other) little one whom we'll never, ever think of as anything but close to us."
Paddy Agnew can be contacted at pagnew@aconet.it