Parents, Baby Reunited After Hospital Mix-Up
Benigna Sanchez thought something was amiss even before leaving the hospital with the wrong baby two weeks ago. This newborn’s head seemed bigger--and with more hair--than that of the baby she had delivered a day earlier.
Figuring such a mix-up was unthinkable, Sanchez said nothing. It wasn’t until mother and baby were home in South El Monte that Sanchez, 25, noticed the baby bracelet bearing another family’s name.
“I saw it and still didn’t believe it,” Sanchez said Tuesday, a day after officials at Greater El Monte Community Hospital sorted out the confusion using DNA tests and finally sent the two babies home with their rightful parents.
The hospital fired three nurses and a supervisor, saying they failed to check the identification bracelet before sending Sanchez and her husband, Salvador Sanchez, home with the child on Sept. 23. The couple returned the baby the next morning and awaited test results. But Benigna Sanchez said her doubts dissolved as soon as she saw her own son again. “I felt something for him,” she said.
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