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Switched At Birth: Best Friends Born Three Days Apart Find Out They Were Raised By Wrong Parents 41 Years Later

By Tara Dodrill
Published on: 00:24 PST, Aug 27, 2016

Best friends born three days apart just found out they were switched at birth. David Tait Jr. and Leon Swanson, now 41, were born at the Norway House Hospital in Manitoba, Canada, and sent home with the wrong parents. DNA testing confirmed the government-run hospital made a huge mistake – for the second time.

David Tait Jr. and Leon Swanson are the second switched-at-birth case known to have occurred at the Norway House Hospital in 1975. The Canadian government is now offering free DNA testing to all people born at that hospital during the 1970s, the Daily Mail reports.

“I want answers so bad,” David Tait said as he struggled to maintain his composure during a press conference held in Winnipeg on Friday. “We don’t have words, forty years gone.”

Leon Swanson also struggled to fight back tears when talking about being switched at birth. He noted feeling “distraught, confused, and angry.”

Tait and Swanson were the best of friends throughout their lives, often spending time at each other’s home without ever realizing they had been the victim of a horrific mistake.

“What happened here is lives were stolen. You can’t describe it as anything less than that,” Eric Robinson, a former member of the Manitoba Legislative Assembly for Keewatinook, told the media.

The government-run Norway House Hospital serves two small communities in northern Manitoba. The remote area is accessible by plane or a long rugged road which connects the region with Winnipeg – about 500 miles to the south. Approximately 5,000 mostly indigenous Cree Nation people live in the area, CBC News reports.

Luke Monias and Norman Barkman found out they had been switched at birth at the same Norway House Hospital in 1975. The two men, also lifelong friends, were mistakenly sent home with the wrong parents five months after Swanson and Tait were born.

As Monias and Barkman grew up together, folks in the community often reportedly joked about how much they looked like each other’s families.

“The federal government owes these people. What happened to them is criminal,” Robinson also said. “We can live with one mistake, but two mistakes of a similar nature is not acceptable. We can’t slough it off as being a mistake. It was a criminal act.”

The former aboriginal affairs minister said he fears and suspects there are more switched-at-birth incidents stemming from the same hospital.

“There are lingering questions out there. We have families who are deeply hurt by this. We have siblings that are hurt by this,” Eric Robinson added.

Robinson also told the press the Canadian government will not be able to sweep this matter under the rug. The federal health department is responsible for operations at the hospital.

Jane Philpott, the Canadian Health Minister, said the discovery of the second switched-at-birth case from the Norway House Hospital has “deeply troubled” her. According to the Canadian official, an independent team will soon be hired to review all birth records at the hospital in an attempt to investigate any other possible mistakes made in the maternity ward.

“Cases like this are an unfortunate reminder to Canadians of how urgent the need is to provide all indigenous people with high-quality health care,” the health minister stated in a media release.

The Norway House Hospital now reportedly places identification bands on all babies born at the government-run health facility.

Approximately 1.4 million native people reportedly live in poor economic and social conditions in Canada and do not always have access to quality medical care and education services.

[Image via Circlephoto/Shutterstock]

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