TOKYO: A lorry driver in Japan who discovered he had been swapped at birth with a baby from a wealthy family has won a lawsuit against the hospital involved, which was ordered to pay him 38 million yen (about RM1.05 million) in compensation.
The 2013 case resurfaced on social media following recent reports of Chinese children who were kidnapped as infants, raised in poor families, and later reunited with their biological parents from affluent households, South China Morning Post reported.
In November 2013, a court ruled that San-ikukai Hospital in Sumida, Tokyo, was responsible for the baby swap that occurred immediately after their births in 1953 and had to pay compensation to the man, who was 60 years old at the time.
The truth about the swap remained hidden for six decades, until the wealthy family’s younger sons became dissatisfied with their eldest brother’s treatment of their father.
After their mother passed away, the eldest son reportedly took his father’s inheritance from the mother’s estate as compensation for caring for the elderly man, but instead sent their father to a nursing home.
This raised suspicions among the siblings, who began to notice that their eldest brother looked different from them.
They also recalled that their late mother had mentioned that his clothes were swapped after a nurse bathed him at the hospital after birth.
To confirm their doubts, they collected a cigarette butt discarded by their eldest brother and sent it for DNA testing in 2009.
The results shocked them, revealing no biological relationship between them.
Further investigation of hospital records led to the discovery of a truck driver in Tokyo who had been born just 13 minutes before the baby who was swapped with him.
The man was raised by a foster family and lost his foster father at the age of two, forcing him to live in poverty and work part-time to complete high school.
Meanwhile, the baby who should have been him was raised in a wealthy environment, received a quality education, and became a company executive, while his three younger brothers also succeeded in the corporate world.
Unfortunately, when the truck driver discovered the identity of his biological parents, both had already died.
Judge Masatoshi Miyasaka ruled in favour of the plaintiff, stating that “he was separated from his biological parents immediately after birth” and was entitled to compensation because “he should have been raised in a financially comfortable environment”.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
