Ore. babies switched at birth meet 56 years later

[okarol]

Ore. babies switched at birth meet 56 years later

Mon May 11, 4:02 pm ET

HEPPNER, Ore. – On a spring day in 1953, two babies were born at Pioneer Memorial Hospital in the Eastern Oregon town of Heppner — DeeAnn Angell of Fossil and Kay Rene Reed of Condon. The girls would grow up, get married, have kids of their own and become grandparents. Then, last summer, Kay Rene's brother, Bobby Reed, got a call from an 86-year-old woman who had known his mother and had also lived next door to the Angell family in Fossil.

"She said she had something she had to get off her chest," Bobby Reed said in an interview with the East Oregonian newspaper of Pendleton, which reported the story Sunday.

Bobby met the woman at the nursing home where she lives. The woman said Marjorie Angell insisted back in 1953 that she had been given the wrong baby after the nurses returned from bathing them. Her concerns, however, were brushed off.

Then the old lady showed Bobby an old photo.

"It looked like Kay Rene in about 7th or 8th grade," Bobby said.

But it was DeeAnn Angell's sister.

"Kay Rene is not a Reed," the woman insisted. "DeeAnn is a Reed."

Bobby, obviously stunned, didn't know what to do with the information. He didn't want to hurt anyone; he didn't want anything to change.

He finally decided to tell his two oldest sisters, and one of them told Kay Rene.

With both sets of parents dead, the Reed and Angell siblings compared notes and family stories, learning that rumors of a mix-up had been around for years. In early February, DeeAnn got a call from her sister, Juanita. "Do you remember those rumors of being switched at birth?" Juanita asked, and went on to provide the update.

"Does this mean I'm not invited to the family reunion?" DeeAnn joked.

Kay Rene, meanwhile, needed to learn the truth. Kay Rene, Bobby and their sister Dorothy met DeeAnn at a Kennewick, Wash., clinic last month. The doctor said Kay Rene's and DeeAnn's DNA would be compared with that of Bobby and Dorothy to determine the probability of a relation.

A week later, Kay Rene got the results at work. She went to her car to open the envelope in privacy. Her likely probability of being related to her brother and sister? Zero.

"I cried," she said. "I wanted to be a Reed — my life wasn't my life."

DeeAnn's report said she had 99.9 percent of being related to Bobby and Dorothy.

DeeAnn, who now lives in Richland, Wash., told the newspaper that the report only confirmed what she knew after meeting Kay Rene.

"After seeing Kay Rene, I went home and told my husband, I don't know why she's doing the DNA testing," she said. "I was shocked — she looked just like my sister's twin."

Pioneer Memorial Hospital offered to pay for counseling, but both women declined.

The two have become friends and celebrated their latest birthday together earlier this month. Recently, Kay Rene Qualls introduced DeeAnn Shafer to her work colleagues, calling her "my swister."

"I'm trying to move forward at look at the positive," DeeAnn said. "I love my kids. I love my husband. I love my life."

She paused. "You can't look back. It just drives you crazy."

___

Information from: East Oregonian, http://www.eastoregonian.info

[kristina]

It reminds me a little of my own story!
After being diagnosed with MCTD in 2003 I was told
I suffer from one of the rarest genetically inherited combinations:
MCDT/SLE,Vasculitis, Antiphospholipid Syndrome, Sjoegren's Syndrome, Glomerulonephritis, Hypertension and,
because of a flare-up of MCTD/SLE, I am now in end-stage renal failure.
After my diagnosis I contacted the family where I grew up,
wondering what was going on, because I was always the only one
being sick, even as a child and I did not comprehend how it could be genetically inherited.
I then found out they were not my genetic family at all and I was taken on as a baby.
Researching in the archives of the hospital which is mentioned in my birth-certificate,
I found I was not born in this Hospital at all.
My birth was registered in the Registry Office,
stating I was born in the Hospital,
and the Registry Officer did not check up.
Had I not been diagnosed in 2003,
I possibly would never had found out and
would have been wondering for the rest of my life!
I began to search for my family, put an ad in the newspapers with the result,
that people contacted me, remembering something was not right.
Eventually I found that my family fled Russia during the revolution in 1917.
My childhood was very strange and it makes sense now
because I did not fit in with the family I grew up with. I did try hard, but
I was always a stranger. I am aware that lots of time has gone by and
I only search for my real family because I want a chance
to see the same rheumatologist/doctors/specialist.
The disease I suffer from is so very rare
that very few doctors are familiar with it.
Due to the rarity of the disease I remain very isolated
and without a chance so far
to see a specialist who can treat me or help/assist me medically.
My situation has become very frightening and desperate
because I am now in end-stage renal failure and no doctor knows what to do
or wishes to take me on as a patient.
In April 2005 I was sent a medical letter stating there is no specialist for me here.
If by any chance anyone knows of a family with these rare components of this rare disease
or a specialist/doctor/rheumatologist/nephrologist with experience
with MCTD/SLE and end-stage renal failure due to a flare-up
I would be very grateful if I would be contacted. Thank you. e-mail: schmidt56@yahoo.co.uk