A British father and his wife have been reunited with the baby son they feared had been switched at birth and sold to a trafficking gang.
Richard Cushworth and wife Mercedes Casanellas told yesterday how the child they had taken home from hospital had been proved by a DNA test not to be theirs.
The couple travelled to Ms Casanellas' native El Salvador for the birth and it was only upon their return to their home in Dallas in the United States that they realised the baby they had taken from the hospital was not theirs.
The new parents feared their baby had been swapped at birth and sold to traffickers. But last night they were reunited with their biological son after investigators ordered other new mothers to have their babies undergo a DNA test.
Ms Casanellas’s obstetrician-gynaecologist was arrested on Thursday after the family accused him of masterminding a plot to switch their baby.
But just hours after Mr Cushworth and his wife attended a court hearing to hear the doctor formally accused, El Salvador’s Attorney General Office said its investigation had found their biological child.
Prosecutor General Luis Martinez said he understood the “painful drama” both families had faced and the babies were returned to their parents on Monday evening.
Mr Cushworth and Ms Casanellas told a television station in El Salvador they were pleased with the work the authorities had done to find their son.
Ms Casanellas added: “We are happy with the support we received from the Salvadoran people.”
