A British man has claimed that his newborn child was swapped
by a 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.
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 the
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 a 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.
Mr Cushworth, who met Ms Casanellas when he worked as a
missionary in El Salvador, added: ‘
‘We just want them to give us our son back. 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.
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?”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”.
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 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.’ She said of the baby swapped
with theirs
‘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.’
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.
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.
