New Mother Confirms She Was Given Wrong Baby : Mix-Up: Woman blasts Santa Ana hospital for not acknowledging that it made a mistake.

A distraught new mother confirmed Saturday that Western Medical Center-Santa Ana had sent her home with the wrong newborn baby, and blasted the hospital for refusing to publicly acknowledge and apologize for the mistake.

The woman and her husband, who asked not to be identified, sat in their Costa Mesa dining room Saturday explaining the mix-up while their newly reclaimed week-old son snoozed on his grandmother’s shoulder.

“Even though I have my son, and I thank God I have my son, I still see that other baby’s face,” the woman said tearfully.

Hospital spokesman John M. Boop said Saturday that the hospital had respected both couples’ requests for anonymity when news of the mix-up surfaced last week. Boop said it would be “terribly inappropriate” to confirm or deny any mix-up, which is part of the patients’ confidential medical records.

The Costa Mesa mother said she was handed the wrong baby in the hospital hours after the birth, and had no idea the baby boy was not her son until a day after she took the newborn home, when she noticed that his wristband bore another mother’s name.

“It’s a very traumatic experience,” she said. “I was hysterical.”

The hospital eventually located the other child, whose parents were equally startled, and both couples were informed that their babies had probably been switched, the woman said. But it took several days of testing before the couples were sure they had the right babies, she said. “They were just as torn up as we were,” the mother said.

The woman said she gave birth to an 8-pound, 3-ounce boy at 3:04 a.m. Dec. 15. About 6 a.m., she said, she was handed a baby boy that looked remarkably like her own son.

“I couldn’t tell because I had been in labor and I was tired, and he had a little hat on. . . ,” she said. “I had no idea it wasn’t mine.”

From that point on, she said, “I had the baby in the room with me.”

The mother and baby were sent home from the hospital about noon on Dec. 16, the couple said. That night, “I went to put the baby in his pajamas, and the wristband just slipped right off, and I just set it aside,” she said. “I didn’t think about it because you never think it’s the wrong baby.”

But on Monday, she found the wristband, noticed that it bore another woman’s name, and called the hospital.

“At first, they said that it was a typographical error,” she said. Eventually, however, the hospital sent a representative to the home of the other set of parents, and found that they had been sent home with a 8-pound, 2-ounce baby boy who looked almost identical--but also had the wrong name on his wristband.

The Costa Mesa couple believe that the mix-up occurred because the babies, who are initially tagged with bands on both their wrists and ankles, were each tagged with one name on the wrist and another on the ankle.

“When they released me, they checked the leg, which matched my number, but the wrist did not,” the mother said.

When they arrived at the hospital about 7 p.m. Monday, they were told that the babies had probably been switched, but that blood tests would be needed to confirm which baby was which, the couple said.

“I was shocked. I didn’t believe it. I insisted that that was my baby,” she said. “My God, I took care of it in the hospital. I stayed up all night with the baby, and I was convinced it was my child.”

That night, the hospital conducted routine blood tests, but the couples’ blood types were too similar to make a conclusive match, the baby’s father said. The women were readmitted and spent the next two nights at the hospital while more extensive tests were being taken, she said.

Meanwhile, the two babies were put in a single nursery, so that both mothers could get acquainted with both babies, the couple said.

“I had a hard time getting to know him,” the mother said, pointing to her true son. “I couldn’t convince myself to hold him because I wasn’t convinced that he was mine.”

By Wednesday, the couples were informed that the babies had indeed been switched. But then the Costa Mesa couple’s baby developed jaundice, and was kept in the hospital until Friday, when he was well enough to come home, the mother said.

The couples also requested DNA analysis to confirm the blood tests and expect the results in about two weeks, she said.

The woman urged other mothers to check their babies’ wrist and ankle bands before leaving the hospital.

“Just don’t depend on the hospital being right, because I took it for granted,” she said. “I want to make sure mothers know that there are mistakes made. . . .

“When you first get a baby and you begin bonding in that way, then it’s very hard to let go,” she said.

The woman said her 10-year-old son, who doesn’t look much like her, is now afraid that perhaps he, too, might have been mixed up at birth.

“He took right to the baby and all of a sudden the baby has to leave us,” the woman said. “And now he says, ‘See, Mom, what if I was switched?’ And now I’m very concerned.”

The couple, who had their attorney with them during the interview, said they had asked the hospital for anonymity. “I was devastated enough, and I didn’t want to have to answer questions,” she said.

But she and her husband said they were distressed to read in the newspapers statements by hospital officials that they thought left the false impression that there had never been a mix-up. They said they telephoned the hospital Saturday to ask that administrators contact the media to set the record straight.

“It made me angry, because it made me sound like I was just a hysterical parent. . . ,” the woman said. “It made them sound like they’re in the right.”

After news stories appeared, the woman said: “A lot of people called me and said, ‘Well, why did you think that wasn’t your baby? And I said, ‘But it wasn’t my baby!’ ”

“If you’re going to put it in the paper, tell the truth,” the baby’s father added.

Boop, vice president of community relations for the hospital, said Saturday that he did not imply that there was no mix-up.

“I did not comment on that, because that is part of the medical record. . . ,” Boop said. “That medical record is in a sense a precious legal document and it has the rights of the patients and the rights of the doctor involved. . . . It would be terribly inappropriate for me to comment on that, and I shouldn’t, and I won’t.”

Jacqueline Lincer, Orange County district administrator for the state Department of Health Services’ Facilities Licensing and Certification Division, said Friday that the allegation about the baby mix-up at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana is under investigation.

“We will be looking to see if the facilities have very specific policies and procedures on how newborns are tagged and looking to see if they followed the policies and procedures,” Lincer said.

Times staff writer Bill Billiter contributed to this story.