Hospital Tells Parents They Were Given Wrong Baby
Iliana Bravo and Brian Lambert had their newborn son home for 90 minutes Sunday afternoon when the phone rang. It was St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, telling them they’d been given the wrong baby.
“A baby was mistakenly released to the wrong parents this afternoon,” said hospital spokeswoman Valerie Orleans. “The minute they realized there was a mistake . . . from looking at the arm band, [hospital officials] called.”
Sunday evening, Bravo, Lambert and another couple sat for hours at the hospital while officials scrambled to find a lab that could do DNA blood work.
Bravo’s wristband and the baby’s were clipped and placed side-by-side on discharge papers before they left the hospital for their Tustin home, according to standard hospital procedure, officials said. But ID numbers on the bands were not compared until the other mother went to feed her baby and a nurse discovered the mix-up.
Late Sunday, both sets of parents were told that their babies would have to remain at the hospital until Tuesday.
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