Native kids switched at birth

[ferri]

Indigenous leaders say two men from a northern Manitoba First Nation have DNA evidence showing they were switched at birth — the second such alleged mix-up in the mid-1970s at the same federally run hospital.

The men, who are to share their story publicly Friday, were born at the Norway House Cree Nation hospital in January 1975. They still live in the community about 450 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

DNA tests revealed just a few days ago that the men are not biologically related to their parents.

"It's disgraceful," Manitoba's former aboriginal affairs minister Eric Robinson, who has been working with the families, said Thursday.

"It's really, really troubling."

The revelation comes after two men from Garden Hill First Nation discovered last fall that they were switched at birth at the Norway House hospital in the same year.

more here:
http://www.castanet.net/news/Canada/174 ... d-at-birth

[Rosemary1]

Lets just a start another class action lawsuit on this too. Can we blame it on racism and sue someone?. As terrible as such mixups are I would wager there have been more than we know throughout every population. It was only about 16 years ago that a neighbor of mine went into hospital in a South Okanagan hospital to have her baby. There was a crazy unprecedented rush on babies being born that day with staff running everywhere. If it wasn't for the vigilance of her husband their son would have had the bracelet id of another little boy born within minutes of their own!.

Procedures to reduce the risk of such mix ups have come a long way since the 70's and earlier, yet we can't ever expect zero risk even today.

Makes me wonder if I should check my DNA since I look nothing like my siblings.....

[Graham Adder]

wow

[dieseluphammerdown]

The only thing disgraceful is Eric Robinson and his comments. This is not a race issue it happens sadly to people from all walks of life. Trying to make this anything else is grasping at straws.

[jimmy4321]

It happens, not right but it could happen to anyone.
How old are these "children" now? I think people need to move on and just be happy of the discovery.

[Dizzy1]

How old are these "children" now?

Article says they were born in Jan '75 so 41 years old.

[GenesisGT]

An article from 1998 in the USA about 28,000 babies every year get switched, although most mistakes are fixed before leaving the hospital.

But in this instance I am sure a few million dollars will be spent on a investigation to determine how some one 40 years ago mixed up the identification bracelets. How do you say happens.

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1998-08-16/features/1998228086_1_bracelet-delivery-room-baby-id

About 28,000 babies get switched in hospitals every year, temporarily or permanently, out of four million births, says Nicholas Webb, vice president of technology for Talon Medical Limited, a San Antonio, Texas-based vendor of a new high-tech ID bracelet for newborns. He says his figures are from a 1996 study by Inter/Action Associates, a Las Vegas, Nev.-based security consulting firm.

If the figures are accurate - the National Institutes of Health doesn't track switches - this translates into one mistake per 1,000 transfers, Webb says. A transfer is every time the baby is brought from the nursery to the mom, and vice versa. During a mother's average two-day hospital stay, a baby is transferred about six times, he says.

"The good news is," he says, "most mistakes are fixed before the baby leaves the hospital."

[Symbonite]

http://www.castanet.net/news/Canada/177 ... -whodunnit

Imagine finding out years later that your actually from a different family to find out that the same happened to another person because of a mix up accidentally or criminally.

Imagine the day you find that out. That would be so crazy.

I mean I think I was switched because my family is crazy...but I'm not. I see my Grandfathers army photo and I am a doppelganger to him.

[the truth]

The only thing disgraceful is Eric Robinson and his comments. This is not a race issue it happens sadly to people from all walks of life. Trying to make this anything else is grasping at straws.

bingo--there the ones turning this into a racisit issue-no surprise here really

[maryjane48]

no it is not just what happens . this was cleary who cares if we switch them,they arent white and nobody will care .

[alfred2]

That is not what happened, they got switched not because they were native but two kids got switched. How can you make racist out of this? You must love fiction, since you post so much of it.

[maryjane48]

try some research , these hospitals were known as indian hospitals run by govt of the day. if you know anything about residential schols and what happened there it will become clear



Last November, two men from Garden Hill First Nation came forward after DNA results confirmed they were not the biological children of their parents. They, too, were born in 1975 at the same Norway House hospital.

it happended twice same year same hospital .


https://www.google.ca/amp/www.cbc.ca/am ... id-samsung


the only fiction is your take of it .

[zzontar]

no it is not just what happens . this was cleary who cares if we switch them,they arent white and nobody will care .

About 28,000 babies get switched in hospitals every year, temporarily or permanently, out of four million births, says Nicholas Webb, vice president of technology for Talon Medical Limited, a San Antonio, Texas-based vendor of a new high-tech ID bracelet for newborns.

Do you also think no one cared in these cases, or just the ones involving natives?

[maryjane48]

the topic is natives in native hospitals run by the govt . we know how natives were treated at residential schools where kids were takin from their families and never be seen again .
your compairing apples to oranges and it seems you had leave canada to prove to yourself that its a normal thing to happen




same hospital same year same race . if it talk like duck it is a duck .


are you of the opinion white folks in canada never treated first nations as somehow not equal to whites ?

[maryjane48]

The premise was the Indian hospitals would operate at half the cost of community hospitals, Lux said. “They were constantly short-staffed, always cutting corners. The point was to do this inexpensively.”

The Norway House hospital was built in 1952 on a decommissioned military base surrounded by marshland. The two-storey wooden structure served a region so impoverished it was called a “wilderness ghetto” in some government records.



Maureen Lux, a Brock University history professor and author of the recent book, Separate Beds: A History of Indian Hospitals in Canada, says the push to create a segregated health care system for indigenous people was driven by a desire to control the “overblown” threat of tuberculosis in First Nations’ communities and prevent non-aboriginals from having to share their modern community hospitals.