Japanese man, 60, switched at birth wins lawsuit against hospital, A 60-year-old Japanese man switched at birth says he would like to “roll back the clock”, days after winning a lawsuit against the hospital which mistakenly cast him into a life of poverty.
The man told a packed Tokyo press conference late Wednesday that he was shell-shocked when he learned the truth, saying his life would have been starkly different.
“I’ve wondered ‘how on earth could this happen’? I couldn’t believe it. To be honest, I didn’t want to accept it,” he said. The man was not identified.
“I might have had a different life. I want (the hospital) to roll back the clock to the day I was born.”
This week, a Tokyo district court ordered the hospital to pay 38 million yen (Dh1.3 million) in damages over its 1953 blunder which saw the man switched with another baby boy who was delivered just 13 minutes later.
The man, an unmarried truck driver, would have grown up as the eldest of four brothers in a wealthy family where siblings enjoyed a lavish lifestyle including private tutors.
Instead, he was raised on welfare by his non-biological mother who also supported older siblings after her husband passed away.
The decades-old mistake was uncovered when the wealthy family’s three younger brothers had DNA testing done on their oldest sibling – who looked nothing like them – after their parents died.
They checked hospital records and confirmed the identity of their biological eldest brother last year, whom the men have since met.
The man switched at birth said he cried daily for several months after learning the truth.
“As I saw pictures of my (biological) parents, I wanted to see them alive. I couldn’t hold back tears for months every time I saw their pictures.”
The man told a packed Tokyo press conference late Wednesday that he was shell-shocked when he learned the truth, saying his life would have been starkly different.
“I’ve wondered ‘how on earth could this happen’? I couldn’t believe it. To be honest, I didn’t want to accept it,” he said. The man was not identified.
“I might have had a different life. I want (the hospital) to roll back the clock to the day I was born.”
This week, a Tokyo district court ordered the hospital to pay 38 million yen (Dh1.3 million) in damages over its 1953 blunder which saw the man switched with another baby boy who was delivered just 13 minutes later.
The man, an unmarried truck driver, would have grown up as the eldest of four brothers in a wealthy family where siblings enjoyed a lavish lifestyle including private tutors.
Instead, he was raised on welfare by his non-biological mother who also supported older siblings after her husband passed away.
The decades-old mistake was uncovered when the wealthy family’s three younger brothers had DNA testing done on their oldest sibling – who looked nothing like them – after their parents died.
They checked hospital records and confirmed the identity of their biological eldest brother last year, whom the men have since met.
The man switched at birth said he cried daily for several months after learning the truth.
“As I saw pictures of my (biological) parents, I wanted to see them alive. I couldn’t hold back tears for months every time I saw their pictures.”
