DNA testing reveals North Texas woman was switched at birth, lawsuit says
A North Texas woman is suing the Baylor Scott and White Health system, claiming that she was switched with another baby at birth.
The woman, 49-year-old Melissa Brewton of Glen Rose, said that she never felt she belonged to her family when she was growing up.
“I’ve always said it: I don’t look like anyone, I don’t act like anyone, I don’t even associate with that side of the family,” Brewton told the Star-Telegram.
It wasn’t until her daughter took a DNA test, hoping to gain insight on her ethnic background, that she had an explanation for those feelings, Brewton said.
When her daughter’s test results came back, the daughter was connected to someone who AncestryDNA identified as a possible aunt, Brewton said.
At this point, Brewton said, she knew nothing about having been switched at birth, and only suspected that her father might have had a child with another woman.
After seeing a photo of the woman and connecting with her via Facebook, Brewton said her biological sister was the one to break the news to her about the swap at the hospital.
“The sister that she had grown up with already knew that something happened at the hospital,” Brewton said.
The two girls were born a day apart at Grapevine Memorial Hospital (now Baylor Scott and White of Grapevine) in April 1975, Brewton said.
Now, Brewton is suing Baylor Scott and White, alleging that the Grapevine hospital’s mistake resulted in a lifetime of pain and suffering.
Officials with Baylor Scott & White did not comment on the litigation, but noted that the system did not own or operate the hospital until 1981. In a response filed in Tarrant County district court, the hospital system denied the allegations.
Brewton said that she was molested by family members as a child, according to a statement from her lawyer’s office.
“I had no clue, you know, but none of that even had to happen,” Brewton said. “I didn’t have to be terrified from the time I was 5 until I was 13 years old.”
The lawsuit is based in part on that pain, but also on the pain Brewton says she’s suffered since finding out about her biological family.
She never got to meet her biological mother, who died of breast cancer, she sad. She lost out on time with her biological father, who Brewton said struggles with leaving after seeing her.
“He cries every time because he missed out on my entire life and my kids’ entire lives,” Brewton said.
What she struggles with the most, though, is adapting to the fact that there was a real reason behind why she felt she never belonged, she said.
“I didn’t realize how much, genetically, when people are connected like that, it’s a different feeling,” Brewton said. “And I had never, in my whole life, I’ve never felt that way.”
Brewton is seeking damages in excess of $1 million, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit isn’t about the money, Brewton said. It’s about holding the hospital accountable for the mistake.
“At the end of the day, you cannot give a child to the wrong family and just be like, oh, sorry about your luck,” Brewton said.
This story was originally published November 25, 2024 at 3:33 PM.
