Original switch. Youre out of your mind. I wouldnt care if they traced her heritage to cabbage patch, usa. Im her father, i always have been and i always will be. Barbara i cant imagine what it would have been like. Was it deliberate . This was no accident. I asked her on her deathbed. Her daughter said, who made you god . And why . Why was i switched . Having grown up in florida, i knew a bit about wauchula. I knew this is a place where probably only a few thousand people lived in the whole county, and were talking sort of backwoods florida. This is a very rural country town. There were two stoplights in the city of wauchula in 1978. Two of em. One of em was right not far from the courthouse, and the other was about a mile to the south. Its a small town. Neighbors trust each other. People dont lock their doors. Its a place where generations generations have lived in the same county. It was the only hospital. And only one obstetrician. Two women came to hardee memorial to have their babies. They were a beautiful couple. He was handsome and charming and she was tall and lovely. They were the perfect florida couple. We had a nice place to live on a lake a boat and ski. Just really enjoyed life. It was wonderful. Barbara and i knew we wanted to have a family, she just didnt get pregnant. We wanted to have a child very badly, and we just kept trying. She came home one day and just had a real peculiar grin on her face and whispered in my ear, what do i think about being a dad . We were very jubilant. She was pregnant and it looked like everything was going to come together for us. Approximately three hours into her labor, he monitored fetal distress. It became severe enough i ordered a emergency cesarean section for delivery. I was unable to determine very much about the babys condition due to the fact that the caesarean required my attention to the mother. And so this seemed to be a very hard delivery, and they were looking forward to bringing the new baby home. They decide to call the baby kimberly. About the same time, dr. Black had a patient, regina twigg. She also was about to have a baby. My parents were always bringing a baby home. [ laughter ] it seems like mom was always pregnant, you know, with eight children. She would sit us down. Hey, kids, guess what . [ laughter ] the rumors at the time were barbara mays, whose maiden name was coker, the cokers were of some prominence in the town. They have been here as long as i can remember. Contrast that to the twiggs family who were said to be quite poor. Ernest was employed by amtrak, and he worked at the station here. He was heavily involved in helping people get on and off the trains and making reservations and all that. Regina had a teaching degree, but with all the children, she didnt work that much. [ so barbara mays gives birth on november 29th. And three days later, regina twigg goes into labor. At midnight, just around 12 00 midnight, the contractions started, and i told my husband, ernest, come on, ernest. We need to get down there. The babys going to be coming. So we take off down the road to wauchula, which is a country setting. I mean, its like nothing is around except the animals that hide in the scrub brush. Im saying, oh, ern. Hurry, ern. But he says, just be calm, dear. I cant go through the stop signs, dear. Now, just breathe, dear. We drove around to where the emergency room was. And they called dr. Black right away. Meanwhile im saying, oh, you will give me some gas, wont you . You will give me some gas, wont you . Because i was the biggest coward on this earth. And people are astounded that i had that many children and was that big of a coward at my deliveries. She had a spontaneous easy delivery of what appeared at the time to be a perfectly healthy infant. Oh, i had my heart set on a girl. We had lost a baby girl in 1975. She was our last little girl. Regina had lost a daughter, a baby girl, to a heart defect at the age of 6 weeks. We were on the road and vivia actually passed away. She was on the backseat with me, and i noticed that she was choking and her eyes were rolling in her head. My father took vivia from me and did cpr on her. By the time we got to the hospital, all i remember is them running her in really quick, and i remember being in the back part of the car. And my parents come out and let us know that she had passed away. So regina twigg is in the hospital. Shes a little bit nervous hoping her next child is healthy. When shes told initially the child is healthy, shes very relieved. I said, oh wow, gee, oh oh oh im so happy its a baby girl. We have a little girl again. Regina told me that when she was in the hospital, she was walking down the hall. You know, after having a baby, you get up and walk around the hall. And she looked into the room. There was only one other patient in the whole maternity section. And she saw that the mother seemed very sad and distressed. And she stopped and she lingered and said, what did you have . And the woman said, a girl. But looked down and looked away. Then a nurse came along and hurried regina away, and said, this is a very sad story. When she came home, she told me about that. That that was she wonders what was going on with the situation there. Regina had been breastfeeding her baby every four hours. And on the third day, the nurse handed her a baby that just didnt seem like the same baby. She noticed that the baby didnt want to nurse and the baby looked kind of blue. She said, i dont think this is my baby. This baby is darker in color. And the nurse said, no, mrs. Twigg, this is your baby. Youre a little nervous about everything. And they said, look at the band on the wrist that said, twigg. When youre a nervous new mother, what are you going to say . Sounds crazy. And i never dreamed, not for a second on this earth, that they had given me somebody elses baby. And later i mentioned it to my husband what i had said to her. And my husband said, youre crazy. Youre absolutely crazy. This is crazy. Dont talk like that. Its stupid. That sounds like something that my dad would say. That thats pretty much how our household ran, you know, was, hey, everythings okay. En why, lets not upset anybody here, because this is what theyre telling you. The next day, a doctor who regina didnt know, who was not her doctor, came in said, im dr. Palmer. We understand that you had a baby who died from heart disease. This baby has a heart problem too. And i just began to wail through the whole hospital floor. And ernest said, in his laid back way, oh, calm down, dear. Calm down. And he tried to comfort me, but my heart was broken. Oh, my god, just like vivia. Oh, god no. That kind of thing. The baby had a very severe heart condition, and they didnt expect the baby to live over a week. Regina left the hospital later that morning, along with ernest and the sick baby. The mays left the hospital carrying the well baby. It would be almost ten years before anyone learned for sure the babies had been switched. When that happened 100 million in damages. All hell broke loose. music playing too early. Good music playing anncr ready or not the holidays are here, so warm up your holiday spirit with donut sticks new chocolate dipping sauce and a cinnamon cookie latte, from mccafe. Well, maybe not forever. Doors are open so hurry to save on boots. Keurig. Diamond jewelry. Plus 40 off levis® jeans for him and her sale ends saturday jcpenney the best of pressure cooking and air frying now in one pot, and with tendercrisp technology, you can cook foods that are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. The ninja foodi Pressure Cooker, the Pressure Cooker that crisps. 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And with over 80 years of healthcare expertise, imagine what we can do for you. This is the benefit of blue. i love watching the weather. Hello, my name is itsy bitsy. Rain again . robin hahahaha statler thats impossible. I always plan ahead lets try one more time. kermit ha robin, what do you think of the story so far . robin gee, ive always liked arachnids. Solid opening. Boy, cant wait to see how it ends. waldorf what a coincidence i cant wait for it to end too Waldorf Statler oh hahahaha statler vo portal from facebook. Two families had gone into hardee hospital and walked out with each others babies. Bob and barbara mays, who had one child, kimberly. The other family was regina and ernest twigg. They had six children, including baby arlena. They were discharged on the same day but traveled very different paths. When the twiggs were discharged from the hospital, the doctor in wauchula told them they needed to take arlena to a Specialty Hospital that dealt in pediatric cardiac illnesses. Arlena only had one working valve out of four, and the doctors told regina that if they had waited one more day, the baby would have been dead. She had pneumonia. They put her on antibiotics, and this saved her life, and she rallied. She was very, very spunky, just a precious, precious baby girl. She had to give arlena heart medicine three times a day. And they actually said, whether this child lives or dies will depend on how carefully you monitor the condition and medicate her. She was very fragile. When you put your hand on arlenas back, you could feel her heart beating. It was very scary, because we didnt know from one day to the next, are we gonna lose her too . Meanwhile, the mays family is flourishing. They had a beautiful baby and they were doing well. We just had a wonderful time with kim. We took her everywhere we went and dressed her and showed her off. We were just as proud as we could be of her. 18 months after giving birth, barbara mays was diagnosed with advanced stage 4 ovarian cancer, which was a death sentence. Soon after regina received a phone call. A woman said, mrs. Twigg, you may not remember me, but i had a baby at the same time you had a baby in hardee Memorial Hospital. Regina called me and she said, i had a really strange phone call. This woman called me and said we were in the hospital together. And she said, i was thinking, wouldnt it be nice if our babies could get together and play together . She said that would be fine. She gave her her address. She said well, well try to get over there to see you. And i said, well, thats strange. I cant imagine somebody calling you and asking you that. Then regina calls me some time later, and she said there was an odd car out in front of our house. It was white. They had a little screened porch on the front of the house, and arlena was out there in a little playpen playing with some toys. And they were just sitting there watching the house. And she said she looked out a couple times, they were still there. Maybe this is the woman that called me. Maybe theyd like to come in. So she went out to talk to them, and they drove away. This is not things she told me later. She called me and told me right after that happened. Regina doesnt know it then, but that phone call, years later, will be the key to unlocking the mystery. Barbara mays died in march of 1981. Kimberly was just over 2 years old, and of course so was arlena. She couldnt run and play like everybody else. If she overexerted herself her finger tips would turn purple and her heart would turn purple because the heart wasnt Strong Enough to support the activity. My mom would her skate a little bit. She loved to skip, but that was about all that she could do. I remember mom telling her, you need to settle down. You need to calm down. You need to go sit down. I remember we had this large tree on the side of the house. It was huge. And we all climbed it. She was like, im going to climb that tree. And im like, sweetheart, you cant climb that tree. She turned around and looked at me and was like, why not . I said, well, youre special. She would cry and say, i dont want to be special. I want to be normal like everybody else. All she wanted was to be normal. She begged, begged for that. Thats all she ever begged for. Just let me be a normal little girl. She started to gradually go downhill. Her heart was struggling. She was tired. Her lips seemed more purple. She was struggling with schoolwork because of the lack of oxygen. It was starting to affect her memory. She was 9 years old and she was becoming weaker and weaker. The doctor had told us that after a certain point in time, they wouldnt operate. So we decided on the surgery on our own heart. And we set the date. In preparation for surgery, arlenas blood was typed. They learned that arlena had a b blood type. It is impossible for otype parents to have a natural btype child. I didnt know what to think. I just could not understand why is she a b positive when my husbands an o positive, and im an o negative . The record said o positive on the baby wed given birth to. What theyve just found out has already rocked their world, but it is nothing compared to what theyre gonna learn with the genetics test. They took the genetics test at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Wilma vas, the head geneticist at Johns Hopkins told us of the results. She said mr. And mrs. Twigg, im sorry to have to tell you this, but the test results have proven that arlena is not linked genetically to either one of you. I went into total shock. And my husband turned white. He almost passed out. And mrs. Wilma vas is going on and on about the results of the tests, and im trying to listen to her and im going back into this shock. Just struggling through all this horror. You know, oh, my god, no, no, no. The whole gamut of thoughts went through my head. She has to be mine. She has to be mine. In the hospital on the little card in the bassinet it said baby twigg. Where is baby twigg . Then i had to accept it. And then i had to accept it. We said that she would always be our daughter, and that we would always love her. They were facing a life of or death operation. How do we make a scented oil plugin that doesnt smell fake . Start with the essence of nature air wick scented oils are infused. With essential oils that are 100 natural. To fill every corner with the fragrance of nature. 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The twiggs had been completely shocked when they found out that arlena was not their child. But they were not going to burden arlena with that. Arlena was getting ready for surgery, so we couldnt tell her. We felt like, well, we would relate everything once the surgery was over and she was doing well, and we would work through it. The night before she went in for her surgery, i was optimistic, but i was also scared a little bit. But i didnt want that to show. She and i, we slept on the pull out couch and talked and talked and talked and talked for hours. Arlena was very afraid of the surgery. She told me that she was afraid to die. And i said, youll be fine. You will come out of this beautiful, healthy. Youll be able to run and skip and jump and do everything that all the other children do. She got excited for that. The next morning, she went to the hospital. They took her into surgery. And regina visited her right after. When she came out of surgery, she was so beautiful. She was pink and looked healthy and normal. And i walked in the room, and i was like, oh, my gosh. Look at you. You look so good. She just beamed. You could see it in her eyes. And her smile that she was like, i did this. Im okay. I stood there and watched her start to struggle. And i got a nurse and asked them to please help her. Nobody knew what was going on. She couldnt speak because she was intubated. And arlena just looked over at me, like, help me. What do i do . And i i felt so helpless. The twiggs were sent out of the room so they could work on arlena, but then she went into a coma, and they called them back. I remember watching the monitor and the heart rate just dropped and dropped and dropped until she was gone. I felt like i had died with her. The surgery itself was a success, but because her kidneys failed, she just didnt make it. And i laid my head on her chest and told her i was sorry that i couldnt help her. I stayed at my best friends house. I remember my mom showed up. And she just told me that she passed away. I couldnt believe it. She wasnt supposed to die. Everybody said she would be okay. When she went down that hallway, i wanted to say, no, stop, stop. You know, i was so afraid wed lose her, but i couldnt because it had to be done, because if she didnt have the surgery done, she would die anyway. My older brother and i were out at uncle sam and aunt marges. I was watching a tv program or something, and it came over me that she was gone. She was my best friend. She was my sidekick. I was the one pulling her around in the little red wagon in the front yard after church on sundays. We always did everything together. I visited her grave a lot. I put flowers, and i would buy the huge wreaths, and i went above and beyond because i wanted her to know that i was still there and that i loved her and missed her. And that she was worth that big display of gorgeous flowers. She died on august 23rd, 13 years to the day from the day her baby sister died. They both died august 23rd, 13 years apart. My mom was very griefstricken. There was a void in her. Regina had been so passionate for so many years trying to save arlena and now all of that emotion she was turning it to determination to find her missing child. I thought, where is baby twigg . What