Feb 13, 2008, 13:00 GMT
Saarbruecken, Germany - An unidentified member of the nursing staff at a German hospital has been sacked after two newborn babies were given to the wrong mothers, an official said Wednesday.
Josef Hecken, health minister of Saarland state, said an investigation had failed to discover how the babies were switched and spent the first six months of their lives with the wrong parents before being swapped back.
One of the mothers had told hospital staff that she had a feeling the baby she was feeding was not her own.
But the staff dismissed her fears and did not report them to management of the St. Elisabeth Hospital in Saarlouis on Germany's western border.
'The clinic has taken action on that. There has been one dismissal and one transfer. If the staff had acted properly, the switch might have been discovered sooner,' the minister said.
He said inquiries by his aides, hospital staff and two consultants suggested that identity bracelets on the two little girls' wrists had somehow been swapped but no one knew how. There was no sign it happened deliberately.
The switch was discovered in December and put right last month after counselling to prepare the parents.
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