Two women sue maternity hospital where they were switched at birth

Two women from Russia's Orenburg region have filed a lawsuit against the local maternity hospital. The women claimed that they had been switched at birth at the hospital. As a result, the women had been growing in somebody else's families for 37 years.

Photo: Vesti screencap

A court of Orenburg accepted the civil action seeking compensation for the moral damage on January 30. The two plaintiffs claim that they were switched after birth at the municipal maternity hospital in 1975.

The women have been friends with each other since early childhood. However, they did not look like their parents at all. Everything became clear after genetic expertise, Itar-Tass reports.

To compensate their moral damage, the women seek 6 million rubles ($200,000) in total from the administration of the hospital and from the municipal administration. The court hearings are to take place on February 21.

A similar family drama also took place in Russia's Chelyabinsk region last year. Two families discovered that they had been raising each other's children for 12 years. The children - two girls - were switched at birth too. One of them was growing in a Muslim family as a result of the hospital mistake.

The parents won the case against the maternity hospital. The court ordered the hospital to pay the compensation of over 6 million rubles ($200,000) to the parents.