Couple in El Salvador baby swap take son home after nine-month ordeal

Mercedes Casanellas was suspicious when she noticed the features of her newborn differed from those of the boy doctors had handed her the day after she gave birth

Richard Cushworth and his Salvadoran wife Mercedes Casanellas with their baby son Moses who was originally swapped at birth in El Salvador (BBC News/PA)

A couple whose baby was swapped at birth in a hospital in El Salvador have taken their son home a year after he was born.

Richard Cushworth, originally from Bradford, West Yorkshire, and his Salvadoran wife Mercedes Casanellas, tracked down their son Moses after realising the baby they had been taking care of was not theirs.

Ms Casanellas was suspicious when she noticed the features of her newborn differed from those of the boy doctors had handed her the day after she gave birth by emergency Caesarean in May 2015.

After returning to their home in Dallas, Texas, Ms Casanellas took a DNA test which said there was a zero per cent chance she was the mother of the baby.

Moses, the son of Richard Cushworth and his Salvadoran wife Mercedes Casanellas, was originally swapped at birth in El Salvador (BBC News/PA)

The couple feared their child could have been sold to human traffickers and returned to El Salvador to make an appeal on local TV to find their son.

Authorities tracked down their son after ordering the other new mothers who shared a ward with Ms Casanellas to have their babies' DNA tested.

Describing the birth, Ms Casanellas told the BBC Today programme she saw her son only briefly after he was born.

"He was just passed by me and I gave him a kiss and then he was taken to the nursery and that was the last time I saw him," she said.

Mercedes Casanellas with the couple’s biological son just after the birth

The next day nurses brought her a baby and insisted it was hers, despite her immediate doubts. She thought the second baby's skin was darker.

"My first impression was 'This is not the same baby I saw last night'."

She said she fell to the floor involuntarily when she later got the results of the DNA test.

Richard Cushworth and Ms Casanellas with the child they were given, who does not share their DNA

Describing how she felt at that moment, she said: "The pain, the thought that the baby I had been nursing, taking care of, loving, that he was not mine.

"And then I had another thought, which was 'Where is my baby?"'

What followed was a nine-month battle to get the legal papers allowing the couple to take their son home.

The UK ambassador to El Salvador, Bernhard Garside, told the BBC how he helped the Cushworths get their baby home.

He said children born in El Salvador have their feet printed when they are born, but neither footprints taken at the time of the birth were conclusive. After his intervention, the judge accepted DNA evidence.

Mr Garsdale added: "From a family perspective, this has been very, very tough. This is every parent's nightmare. The bureaucracy of the El Salvadorean system always seemed to conspire against them, but with the help of the Supreme Court judge and some good old-fashioned diplomacy we finally managed to get leverage, and we got the result we wanted.

"It is deeply rewarding and I am very, very pleased for them."

Additional reporting by PA