A family from eastern Indonesia is living parents’ worst nightmare.
They are running DNA tests in Bali to check if they brought the wrong baby home from the hospital.
West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) man Subagio, 29, has been through one heck of an ordeal to try and determine if his baby was switched at the hospital in Bima, Sumbawa, an island to the east of Bali.
Subagio and his wife have apparently been through three rounds of DNA testing with mixed results. The couple has come to Bali a second time now for genetic testing after their baby was born in Bima via caesarean section on Aug. 22.
“The results of DNA testing Sanglah Hospital were given to us on Sept. 29 then concluded that the baby who was with us now is not our biological child. However, DNA benchmark testing proposed by the hospital produced the opposite results, saying that the baby was indeed our child,” Subagio told Tribun Bali on Wednesday.
“Therefore, we are now back at Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar, Bali for clarification about the DNA test results there. I, myself, am confused how the scientific DNA test results can vary when samples were tested from the same people,” he added.
According to Subagio, the confusion started when his wife, Sumarni, 28, delivered via c-section. After giving birth a woman who looked like a patient carried a baby out of the operating room.
“I asked her where she wanted to take the baby. Then the woman replied, ‘I want to care for it at home, it’s safer,”’ Subagio told the newspaper.
The man then claims that he and his wife were given by the hospital, a baby who had some sort of deformation—the Tribun report didn’t go into further details on what sort of deformation. After being given this baby, Subagio says he had a sinking feeling the woman he saw before could have switched the babies.
He says he asked the hospital in Bima about the alleged swap, but they denied any switching and said he was mistaken.
“So, I, my wife, and baby on August 31, when for a DNA test at Sanglah Hospital,” Subagio said.
“The hospital stated that the baby was not our biological child.”
Because of the Bima hospital’s insistence that their baby hadn’t been swapped, despite the Sanglah DNA test result, Subagio says his family next went and reported their case to Bima Police.
Instead of giving Subagio and his wife the clearcut answer that they had been hoping for, it turned out the police’s test, alternatively showed that the baby was theirs.
“[Police] said the (DNA) samples were sent to National Police Headquarters’ forensics. On Nov. 8, the test results, forensics notified us of, were very surprising. Exactly opposite of the DNA test done at Sanglah.”
Subagio claims his persistence with testing the baby is not about its deformity.
“If indeed, this baby is proven to be mine, I will willingly accept him whatever the circumstances. But if not proven to be my child, then I must find my real child.”
Head of Sanglah Hospital’s forensics, Dr. Ida Bagus Putu Alit has confirmed with Tribun Bali that he will meet with Subagio again this week for further testing. However, he says the results of the testing is not part of an investigation and have no legal bearing on the matter.
Can no one get a simple DNA test, right? Let’s hope all is set straight shortly for this family! But since the Sanglah test result is the one that doesn’t match the other two results, is the Bali hospital the one that made the mistake? That’s to be seen.
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