Serpo
7th September 2015, 05:42 AM
'Our baby was swapped at birth': DNA test reveals British father's son was switched for darker-skinned baby hours after his wife gave birth in El Salvador hospital - then sold by people traffickers
Briton Richard Cushworth claims his newborn baby was swapped at birth
His wife gave birth to light-skinned boy, but was given a different child
They waited three months before having a DNA test which found that the child they were given has a 0.000 per cent chance of being theirs
Couple accused their doctor of child trafficking after he repeatedly told them the baby would be dark during the pregnancy
Dr Alejandra Guidos was arrested on Thursday and the country's Attorney General has now ordered a criminal investigation
By Matt Roper for MailOnline (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=Matt+Roper+for+MailOnline)
Published: 18:14 EST, 7 September 2015 | Updated: 21:22 EST, 7 September 2015
A British man has claimed that his newborn child was swapped by staff at an exclusive private hospital in El Salvador in order to be sold to human traffickers.
Richard Cushworth and his wife Mercedes Casanellas welcomed a son at a hospital in San Salvador in May this year, but say they immediately suspected that something was wrong.
The couple, who live in Dallas, Texas, have since had a DNA test and found that the child handed to them by hospital staff is not related to either of them.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/07/09/2C0A274900000578-3224669-image-a-1_1441613019758.jpg
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Nightmare: Richard Cushworth and Mercedes Casanellas, has had a DNA test and found that their child, pictured, is not related to either of them
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/07/09/2C0A273100000578-3224669-image-a-2_1441613023479.jpg
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Changeling: Ms Casanellas, pictured with the couple's biological son after the birth, says that she noticed that the child given to her by hospital staff in San Salvador was darker and looked nothing like her or her husband
Mr Cushworth and his wife had travelled to the capital San Salvador in order for Ms Casanellas to give birth in her home country.
Ms Casanellas says she noticed that the child that staff claimed was hers had a darker skin colour than she remembered at birth, but she was told that she was mistaken.
The couple now fear their light-skinned baby was snatched deliberately by staff at the Ginecologico private hospital to sell to child traffickers.
In an emotional interview with a local TV station, a teary Ms Casanellas said: 'We haven't been able to sleep thinking about where he is, and who has him.
'We just want them to give us our son back.' Mr Cushworth, who met Ms Casanellas when he worked as a missionary in El Salvador, added: 'It's a horrible situation. I have a child and I don't know where he is.
'Someone took my child and I have no idea where he is, who is taking care of him, what has happened to him. Is he in the country? It's awful.
'I sometimes try not to think about this because it is so frightening.'
Ms Casanella's obstetrician-gynecologist, Dr Alejandra Guidos, who the couple accuse of masterminding the plot, was arrested on Thursday, according to their family's lawyer Francisco Meneses.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/07/09/2C0A275100000578-3224669-image-m-8_1441613146215.jpg
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Horror: Mr Cushworth and Ms Casanellas, pictured with the 'swapped' child, says they fear hospital staff has sold their biological child to human traffickers
Ms Casanellas said that, from the fifth month of her pregnancy, she remembered how Dr Guidos would repeatedly tell her that her child would be dark-skinned, even though the father is white.
She said: 'I always thought that was strange. How would he know that from the ultra-sound scans, and why would he keep saying it?'
Remembering her baby's birth, she said: 'I was very stressed at first because the baby took a while to start breathing, but then I held him and remember thinking that he looked like my husband.
'He was very white and had similar features. I remember seeing his genitals and thinking that they were white and pinkish.
'But then the anaesthetist came and told me that I was very nervous and that they were going to give me something to put me to sleep. After that I don't remember anything, until I woke up the next morning.
'Around 8am, they started to bring the babies to their mothers, and I waited for mine. But when I took him I saw that he was very different to the one I had held in the delivery room. When I changed his clothes I noticed that his genitals were very dark and not rosy like how I'd remembered.
'I said to the nurse, 'look, his genitals are very dark', and she told me, 'no, that's normal, that's normal''.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/07/09/2C0A271D00000578-3224669-image-m-9_1441613316055.jpg
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Unbelievable: After Ms Casanellas gave birth, she was given an anesthetic and when she woke up, she claims she was given a different baby (pictured is believed to be their biological son)
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/07/09/2C0A272C00000578-3224669-image-m-10_1441613330037.jpg
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Not theirs: The couple had returned to El Salvador, Ms Casanellas home country and the place where they met, to give birth to their son (pictured is believed to be the 'swapped' baby)
Ms Casanellas said photos she took of her baby son soon after the birth prove that the baby was white-skinned.
Despite the doubts, the couple took the baby back home to Dallas, Texas, but over the coming months family and friends also noticed the child's darker colour and lack of resemblance with his parents.
Ms Casanellas said: 'I would take photos of him and put them next to my husband, trying to find something of us in him. I kept trying to convince myself that he was really ours, that over time we would begin to see a resemblance.
'But my motherly instincts kept telling me that he wasn't mine.'
The family have reportedly already investigated all the other babies born at the hospital on the same day and found that all are with their correct parents - reinforcing their belief that their own son was stolen.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/07/12/2C0A273E00000578-3224669-image-a-5_1441624928733.jpg
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The couple have accused staff at Centro Ginecologico with swapping their fair-skinned child for another boy with darker skin
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/07/12/2C0A270D00000578-3224669-Plot_thickens_Ms_Casanellas_doctor_not_pictured_wa s_arrested_on_-m-4_1441624576703.jpg
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Plot thickens: Ms Casanellas' doctor (not pictured) was arrested on Thursday
The baby was three months old when the couple finally found to courage to take a DNA test, which showed he has a 0.00 per cent probability of being their son.
Desperate to find the baby she gave birth to, the couple rushed back to El Salvador.
At first San Salvador's Ginecologio hospital, considered the best private hospital in the country, denied that the baby could have been swapped, saying it was 'impossible' due to their 'high standards' of control.
But after Dr Guidos's arrest, following the family's high-profile TV interview, the hospital ordered an internal investigation and promised that the situation will be 'rectified'.
The country's Attorney General has now ordered a criminal investigation into the baby's disappearance amid claims a trafficking gang, led by Dr Guido, has been operating inside the hospital.
Ms Casanellas said: 'I just want him to give me my baby back. I want to know that my child hasn't been trafficked or any other crime committed against him. I need my baby, I'm just asking for my baby.'
The couple added that, if the true parents of the baby they were given are not found, they will raise him as their own.
She said: 'If they can't find his mother, he already has parents, us. We are taking care of him and, even though we know he isn't our biological son, we still love him.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3224669/British-man-s-newborn-son-swapped-El-Salvador-hospital-amid-fears-staff-sold-traffickers.html
Briton Richard Cushworth claims his newborn baby was swapped at birth
His wife gave birth to light-skinned boy, but was given a different child
They waited three months before having a DNA test which found that the child they were given has a 0.000 per cent chance of being theirs
Couple accused their doctor of child trafficking after he repeatedly told them the baby would be dark during the pregnancy
Dr Alejandra Guidos was arrested on Thursday and the country's Attorney General has now ordered a criminal investigation
By Matt Roper for MailOnline (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=Matt+Roper+for+MailOnline)
Published: 18:14 EST, 7 September 2015 | Updated: 21:22 EST, 7 September 2015
A British man has claimed that his newborn child was swapped by staff at an exclusive private hospital in El Salvador in order to be sold to human traffickers.
Richard Cushworth and his wife Mercedes Casanellas welcomed a son at a hospital in San Salvador in May this year, but say they immediately suspected that something was wrong.
The couple, who live in Dallas, Texas, have since had a DNA test and found that the child handed to them by hospital staff is not related to either of them.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/07/09/2C0A274900000578-3224669-image-a-1_1441613019758.jpg
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Nightmare: Richard Cushworth and Mercedes Casanellas, has had a DNA test and found that their child, pictured, is not related to either of them
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/07/09/2C0A273100000578-3224669-image-a-2_1441613023479.jpg
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Changeling: Ms Casanellas, pictured with the couple's biological son after the birth, says that she noticed that the child given to her by hospital staff in San Salvador was darker and looked nothing like her or her husband
Mr Cushworth and his wife had travelled to the capital San Salvador in order for Ms Casanellas to give birth in her home country.
Ms Casanellas says she noticed that the child that staff claimed was hers had a darker skin colour than she remembered at birth, but she was told that she was mistaken.
The couple now fear their light-skinned baby was snatched deliberately by staff at the Ginecologico private hospital to sell to child traffickers.
In an emotional interview with a local TV station, a teary Ms Casanellas said: 'We haven't been able to sleep thinking about where he is, and who has him.
'We just want them to give us our son back.' Mr Cushworth, who met Ms Casanellas when he worked as a missionary in El Salvador, added: 'It's a horrible situation. I have a child and I don't know where he is.
'Someone took my child and I have no idea where he is, who is taking care of him, what has happened to him. Is he in the country? It's awful.
'I sometimes try not to think about this because it is so frightening.'
Ms Casanella's obstetrician-gynecologist, Dr Alejandra Guidos, who the couple accuse of masterminding the plot, was arrested on Thursday, according to their family's lawyer Francisco Meneses.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/07/09/2C0A275100000578-3224669-image-m-8_1441613146215.jpg
+7
Horror: Mr Cushworth and Ms Casanellas, pictured with the 'swapped' child, says they fear hospital staff has sold their biological child to human traffickers
Ms Casanellas said that, from the fifth month of her pregnancy, she remembered how Dr Guidos would repeatedly tell her that her child would be dark-skinned, even though the father is white.
She said: 'I always thought that was strange. How would he know that from the ultra-sound scans, and why would he keep saying it?'
Remembering her baby's birth, she said: 'I was very stressed at first because the baby took a while to start breathing, but then I held him and remember thinking that he looked like my husband.
'He was very white and had similar features. I remember seeing his genitals and thinking that they were white and pinkish.
'But then the anaesthetist came and told me that I was very nervous and that they were going to give me something to put me to sleep. After that I don't remember anything, until I woke up the next morning.
'Around 8am, they started to bring the babies to their mothers, and I waited for mine. But when I took him I saw that he was very different to the one I had held in the delivery room. When I changed his clothes I noticed that his genitals were very dark and not rosy like how I'd remembered.
'I said to the nurse, 'look, his genitals are very dark', and she told me, 'no, that's normal, that's normal''.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/07/09/2C0A271D00000578-3224669-image-m-9_1441613316055.jpg
+7
Unbelievable: After Ms Casanellas gave birth, she was given an anesthetic and when she woke up, she claims she was given a different baby (pictured is believed to be their biological son)
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/07/09/2C0A272C00000578-3224669-image-m-10_1441613330037.jpg
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Not theirs: The couple had returned to El Salvador, Ms Casanellas home country and the place where they met, to give birth to their son (pictured is believed to be the 'swapped' baby)
Ms Casanellas said photos she took of her baby son soon after the birth prove that the baby was white-skinned.
Despite the doubts, the couple took the baby back home to Dallas, Texas, but over the coming months family and friends also noticed the child's darker colour and lack of resemblance with his parents.
Ms Casanellas said: 'I would take photos of him and put them next to my husband, trying to find something of us in him. I kept trying to convince myself that he was really ours, that over time we would begin to see a resemblance.
'But my motherly instincts kept telling me that he wasn't mine.'
The family have reportedly already investigated all the other babies born at the hospital on the same day and found that all are with their correct parents - reinforcing their belief that their own son was stolen.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/07/12/2C0A273E00000578-3224669-image-a-5_1441624928733.jpg
+7
The couple have accused staff at Centro Ginecologico with swapping their fair-skinned child for another boy with darker skin
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/07/12/2C0A270D00000578-3224669-Plot_thickens_Ms_Casanellas_doctor_not_pictured_wa s_arrested_on_-m-4_1441624576703.jpg
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Plot thickens: Ms Casanellas' doctor (not pictured) was arrested on Thursday
The baby was three months old when the couple finally found to courage to take a DNA test, which showed he has a 0.00 per cent probability of being their son.
Desperate to find the baby she gave birth to, the couple rushed back to El Salvador.
At first San Salvador's Ginecologio hospital, considered the best private hospital in the country, denied that the baby could have been swapped, saying it was 'impossible' due to their 'high standards' of control.
But after Dr Guidos's arrest, following the family's high-profile TV interview, the hospital ordered an internal investigation and promised that the situation will be 'rectified'.
The country's Attorney General has now ordered a criminal investigation into the baby's disappearance amid claims a trafficking gang, led by Dr Guido, has been operating inside the hospital.
Ms Casanellas said: 'I just want him to give me my baby back. I want to know that my child hasn't been trafficked or any other crime committed against him. I need my baby, I'm just asking for my baby.'
The couple added that, if the true parents of the baby they were given are not found, they will raise him as their own.
She said: 'If they can't find his mother, he already has parents, us. We are taking care of him and, even though we know he isn't our biological son, we still love him.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3224669/British-man-s-newborn-son-swapped-El-Salvador-hospital-amid-fears-staff-sold-traffickers.html