STAVANGER, Norway — In 1965, a Norwegian girl gave beginning to a child lady in a personal hospital. Seven days later she returned residence with a child.
When the infant developed darkish curls that made her look completely different from herself, Karen Rafteseth Dokken assumed she simply took after her husband’s mom.
It took practically six many years to find the true purpose: Rafteseth Dokken’s organic daughter had been mistakenly switched at beginning within the maternity ward of the hospital in central Norway.
The lady she ended up elevating, Mona, was not the infant she gave beginning to.
The infants — one born on Feb. 14 and the opposite on Feb. 15, 1965 — at the moment are 59-year-old ladies who along with Rafteseth Dokken are suing the state and the municipality.
Of their case, which opened within the Oslo District Court docket on Monday, they argue that their human rights have been violated when authorities found the error when the women have been youngsters and lined it up. They declare Norwegian authorities had undermined their proper to a household life, a precept enshrined within the European human rights conference, and demand an apology and compensation.
Rafteseth Dokken, now 78, was in tears as she described studying so a few years later that she obtained the flawed child, in response to Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
“It was by no means my thought that Mona was not my daughter,” she mentioned in courtroom on Tuesday. “She was named Mona after my mom.”
Mona described a way of by no means belonging as she grew up. That sense of uncertainty pushed her in 2021 to do a DNA take a look at, which confirmed that she was not the organic daughter of those that raised her.
However the girl who raised the opposite child knew lengthy earlier than.
A routine blood take a look at in 1981 revealed that the lady she was elevating, Linda Karin Risvik Gotaas, was not biologically associated. The girl elevating her, nevertheless, didn’t pursue a maternity case. Norwegian well being authorities have been knowledgeable of the mix-up in 1985, however avoided telling the others concerned.
Each ladies who have been swapped at beginning have mentioned in interviews that it was a shock to be taught in regards to the mix-up, however the data made items of their lives fall into place, explaining variations each when it comes to look and demeanor.
Kristine Aarre Haanes, representing Mona, mentioned the state “violated her proper to her personal identification for all these years. They saved it secret.”
Mona may have discovered the reality when she was a younger grownup, however as an alternative “she didn’t discover out the reality till she was 57.”
“Her organic father has died. She has no contact along with her organic mom,” added Aarre Haanes.
Circumstances surrounding the 1965 swap at Eggesboenes hospital are unclear, however media stories by NRK recommend there have been a number of instances in the course of the Nineteen Fifties and Nineteen Sixties the place kids have been by chance swapped on the similar establishment. On the time infants have been saved collectively whereas their moms rested in separate rooms.
In different instances the errors have been noticed earlier than the youngsters have been completely positioned with the flawed households, in response to the stories.
An official from the Norwegian Ministry of Heath and Care Companies mentioned the state was unaware of comparable instances and that there have been no plans for a public inquiry.
Asgeir Nygaard, representing the Norwegian state, is combating the case on the grounds that the 1965 change came about in a personal establishment and that the well being directorate within the Eighties didn’t have the authorized authority to tell the opposite households after they found the error.
“Documentation from that point signifies that authorities officers discovered the assessments troublesome, inter alia as a result of it was legally unclear what they may do,” he wrote in a press release to The Related Press forward of the trial’s opening. “Subsequently, in courtroom, we’ll argue that there isn’t a foundation for compensation and that the claims being made are in any case statute-barred.”
The trial is scheduled to run by way of Thursday, however it was not clear when a ruling is anticipated.
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Related Press author Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.
