Spanish teenager sues after discovering she was mistakenly swapped with another baby at birth

Both babies were incubated after being born five hours apart at hospital in La Rioja

The two publicly unidentified 19-year-olds had their identities mistakenly swapped at birth (Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images)

A Spanish teenager who discovered she was mistakenly swapped at birth in a maternity ward nearly 20 years ago is suing health authorities for £2.5m.

The error came to light in 2017 after the 19-year-old’s alleged father demanded a DNA test during a child support dispute, which revealed she was unrelated to the family she grew up with.

It emerged that the newborns had been mixed up in 2002 after being born five hours apart at a hospital in Spain’s northern La Rioja region. They were both in incubators because they were born underweight.

Health authorities have blamed a “one-off human error” and said they will respect any judicial proceedings.

Lawyer Jose Saez Morga said he had filed a claim on behalf of his client for immeasurable emotional harm caused by the error at San Millan de Logrono hospital.

“In the case of my client, she was born later but was given to the mother who gave birth to the first child,” he told the TVR television network. “This is negligence so gross that it speaks for itself.”

Speaking after local newspaper La Rioja published a report on Tuesday about the switch, the area’s health chief, Sara Alba, told reporters: “It was a human error and we haven't been able to find out who was to blame.

“The systems back then were different and weren't as computerised as they are now.”

When the lawyers of the teenager who received the DNA test first approached the hospital, initial investigations suggested there were 17 women with whom she could potentially have been switched, according to the Spanish newspaper El Pais.

An investigation by the health board concluded there could only be one other baby with whom she had been accidentally swapped, who has now been informed of the mistake.

The health board is “not aware of any other cases”.

Additional reporting by agencies