Over 50 years later, Yellowknife woman born in Newfoundland discovers she was switched at birth

Caroline Weir-Greene always felt different from her siblings.

She was known as the goody-two-shoes of the bunch and they would make comments about how maybe she actually had a different father.

It turned out, they were right.

Caroline, who now lives in Yellowknife, was switched at birth at a Newfoundland hospital in 1969, a fact that may have gone unknown had she not taken an AncestryDNA test last winter.

"I was just dumbfounded," she said.

"To know that something like that could happen in this world."

How it happened remains a mystery; the Springdale Cottage Hospital where she was born is now closed. But the families affected by the incident want answers and want an apology for the damage the mixup has caused.

The Globe and Mail first reported the situation.

AncestryDNA 

It all started with questions about her father.

Caroline was raised by her aunt, Toots Budgell, who she considers her mother, as well as the man she thought was her biological father, Hubert Weir.

But she always had this suspicion that maybe he wasn't her father, afterall, the woman who she believed was her birth mother had nine children in total with several men. Caroline didn't have much of a relationship with the woman who she believed was her birth mother, Jessie Rowsell.

Then there was her siblings who would tease her about how different she was, both in appearance and personality.

Her questioning doesn't take away from the relationship she had with her father, Caroline explained, she described Hubert as a kind man who she shared many characteristics with.

Hubert worked in mining, including Con Mine, which was how Caroline first ended up in Yellowknife in 1985.

She's remained in Yellowknife for most of her life. Caroline works as a booking coordinator for the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority and is married to Terry Greene, who owns Northern Fancy Meats.

Last winter Terry gave her an AncestryDNA test for Christmas.

Hubert passed away in 2018 and she felt the time was right to look into her ancestry.

After completing the test she was shocked to discover she had a full sister in Halifax.

"So I immediately sent her a message through Ancestry and just said 'we matched as sisters. I think we need to talk,'" Caroline said.

Caroline said the woman, who didn't want to be included in the story, responded to her saying "phone me and you best be sitting down."

Over the phone, the woman told her about an incident that happened at the Springdale Cottage Hospital in 1969, when Caroline and another woman, Arlene Lush, were born.

The Springdale Cottage Hospital

After giving birth in 1969 at the Springdale Hospital, Ruth Lush was waiting for a nurse to bring her baby, Arlene Lush, back to her.

But the baby the nurse handed her wasn't the same one she was holding earlier.

"I said 'you know, I don't think that's my baby.' And the nurse assured me she checked the band on the leg and everything and she said 'absolutely, you know, that that's your baby. They just change,'" she said.

Ruth said there was no distinct difference between the baby she had been holding and the one she had now.

"There's nothing that I could pick out and say, 'no, my baby don't have this or that' because there was only one ounce difference in the weight of them. They both had blue eyes. They both had a little bit of blonde hair," she said.

But that thought never left her, and that suspicion was confirmed 53 years later when she learned about her biological daughter, Caroline.

The visit

In May 2022, Ruth and Caroline were able to meet.

Ruth was waiting at the St. John's airport along with her children, Caroline's siblings. Her husband Wilfred Lush wasn't able to come due to health issues.

Ruth said the wait was agonizing as she feared she wouldn't recognize her baby, but that wasn't the case.

"When I saw her, I knew it was her," Ruth said.

"I just met her in the doorway and we just hugged and I said 'I'm just never going to let you go again.'"

For Caroline the meeting was "emotional."

She got the chance to see her family's home Triton, a town in northeastern Newfoundland about an hour from where she had grown up in Beachside.

"I tried to embrace it and meet everybody. Nobody did anything wrong here. So I tried to, you know, give it my best shot and meet as many people and make the best of it," she said.

This included getting the chance to go squid jigging with her biological father.

Caroline commented on how skilled her parents were at working with their hands. Ruth gave her a homemade quilt, while Wilfred gave her a model boat he crafted.

But she couldn't get the gravity of the situation out of her head and couldn't stop thinking of the family who'd raised her.

One thought has always stuck with Caroline since the discovery. She worked at a restaurant about halfway between the two towns while growing up.

"And to think that I probably served my family and I didn't even know it," she said.

Arlene Lush

Arlene Lush, the baby Caroline was switched with, wasn't able to meet her biological parents as both are deceased.

"That's still probably the hardest part," she told CBC News.

"They'll never know who I am."

The entire experience has been difficult for Arlene, right from when the woman she thought had given birth to her informed her of the news.

"I almost didn't believe that. I was devastated, of course. I fell to the floor," she said.

"I was like, 'what are you talking about, Mom?'"

Arlene said she has PTSD, depression and has been dealing with medical issues for three years.

Since then, things have gotten worse, she said she no longer has an appetite and has lost 20 pounds.

Arlene, who lives in Golden, B.C., said she was passionate about woodworking.

"I've given up on that, I just can't concentrate," she said.

Arlene said there is a silver lining though, the siblings she never knew she had — eight in total, scattered across the country.

Arlene has been talking with one of her newfound siblings regularly and has an upcoming trip to try and meet with each in person. She also plans to spend time with some of her newfound extended family in Newfoundland.

No apology from the government of Newfoundland

Ruth, Caroline and Arlene are just a fraction of the people affected by the incident.

From each of their partners, to siblings, to friends, each describes their life having changed and being left wondering how this could have happened.

Caroline said she tried filing a report with the RCMP, but it didn't go anywhere.

"Basically they told me they'll pass the information to a supervisor but don't even expect a call back," she said.

"Nobody seems to be held responsible."

Caroline said an apology would have been a start, but she hasn't gotten one. Now she's pursuing legal action.

"Like, how can you move on from from anything unless somebody says they're sorry and acknowledges that they made a mistake? I mean, this was a big mistake. I thought my mother didn't want me," she said.

She said she wants an investigation into how this could have happened.

CBC News reached out to the Newfoundland and Labrador government about the birth mix-up at the Springdale Hospital, but didn't receive a response by deadline.

Paul Dinn is a member of the House of Assembly in Newfoundland for Topsail – Paradise. He serves as the health critic for the Newfoundland and Labrador Progressive Conservative party.

In the Assembly he asked Tom Osborne, Newfoundland and Labrador's minister of health, what he would be doing for these families.

Osborne responded by saying the medical system has advanced to ensure this can't happen, but wouldn't say he would investigate how it did in the first place.

"What I can say is that health authorities today have a much better record keeping system, a much better system of ensuring that this type of thing doesn't happen," Osborne said. "It is very unfortunate that this thing happened Mr. Speaker, a number of decades ago. We share the sympathy with the families."

Speaking with CBC, Dinn said the situation is devastating and it's the government's responsibility to look into how it happened.

"When I look at it from a government point of view, they need to acknowledge that this has happened, they need to consider an apology and they need to look at how it happened. Is it one or two cases or is it something larger?" he said.

The situation also isn't the first time this has happened in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Clarence Peter Hynes and Craig Harvey Avery were born in the Newfoundland town of Come By Chance.

Both were born at Walwyn Hospital, Come By Chance's cottage hospital, on Dec. 8, 1962. Somehow, the two were sent home with the wrong families.

Another couple said a similar situation had happened to them the same year also at the Come By Chance hospital. They were able to catch the mistake before it was two late and switched back.

A case of switched babies also happened in northern Manitoba in 1975 in a federally run hospital. This led to an undisclosed settlement.

In this case, an investigation by Health Canada left several recommendations, including:

• Implementing a number-matched four-band mother-infant bracelet system, with two bands on the baby (ankle and wrist) and bands on the parents.

• Applying identification bands to the infant, mother and mother's partner (if present) in the delivery room immediately after birth, or as quickly as the clinical situation allows.

• Training hospital staff to be highly compliant with the above process, with regular performance audits.

A lost family they never knew they had

For Arlene, she wants accountability but she knows nothing can rectify what she has gone through.

"Nobody should have to go through this ever," she said.

"There's not enough money in the world that could bring me back my parents that I lost and nothing can bring back the 53 years that I didn't have with the family that we should have had."

Caroline said she wants to start healing, but she's just left with too many questions.

"I've missed out on a lot. A lot. My life probably would have been a lot different. I had a good life. Don't get me wrong, I had a great life. I I love my parents. I love my family," she said.

"But it shouldn't be someone's choice to do that, to switch a baby."