Richard Cushworth and his wife Mercedes Casanellas, who is from El Salvador, welcomed a son at a hospital in San Salvador in May 2015, but say they immediately noticed that something was wrong.
The couple, who live in Dallas, Texas, (pictured right with the 'swapped' child and left, Ms Casanellas with their biological child) did a DNA test 3 months after the birth and found that the child handed to them by hospital staff is not related to either of them. The couple now fear their light-skinned baby was snatched deliberately by staff at the exclusive Ginecologico private hospital in the country's capital San Salvador to sell to child traffickers.
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| The couple pictured with their swapped child |
Mr Cushworth, whose parents hail from Bradford, West Yorkshire, 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 staff claimed was hers had a darker skin colour than she remembered at birth, but she was told that she was mistaken. They believe the child has been sold to 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. We just want them to give us our son back.' Mr Cushworth, who met Ms Casanellas when he worked as a missionary in El Salvador, added: '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-gyneacologist, Dr Alejandro Guidos (pictured above), 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?'
Above are photos of the baby she says she gave birth to
Remembering her baby's birth, she said: '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.'
Ms Casanellas and her husband took a number of photos of their biological son after the birth, which they say is further proof that their child was swapped.
'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''.
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 would take photos of him and put them next to my husband, trying to find something of us in him. I kept trying to convince myself that he was really ours, that over time we would begin to see a resemblance.
'But my motherly instincts kept telling me that he wasn't mine.'
The family have reportedly already investigated all the other babies born at the hospital on the same day and found that all are with their correct parents - reinforcing their belief that their own son was stolen.
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.
Desperate to find the baby she gave birth to, the couple has since rushed back to El Salvador.
On Saturday, Mr Cushworth and his wife had DNA tests performed on all the male children born at the hospital on the same day as their son - May 21st.
Out of the ten other children born on the same day, four were male and six were female, but the newspaper did not reveal the outcome of the DNA tests.
At first San Salvador's Ginecologio hospital, considered the best private hospital in the country, denied that the baby could have been swapped, saying it was 'impossible' due to their 'high standards' of control.
But after Dr Guidos's arrest, following the family's high-profile TV interview, the hospital ordered an internal investigation and promised that the situation will be 'rectified'.
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.
Source: UK Daily Mail
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