Woman who believes she was switched at birth sues hospital for accountability

KTVT

By Erin Jones

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    NORTH TEXAS (KTVT) — Being switched at birth is something you rarely hear about, but a Glen Rose woman said it happened to her almost 50 years ago.

Melissa Brewton said what happened to her as a child was nothing short of horrific.

“My mom worked three jobs most of the time,” she said. “I practically raised myself. I had an uncle in the family that did horrible things to me. I had another family member do some horrible things to me. I would never want that childhood for anyone.”

Now, at the age of 49, she said she’s learned all of it could have been prevented. She only came to this realization after her adult daughter took a DNA test.

“She just wanted to know the ethnicity, where we came from, where our families came from,” she said.

Her daughter told her she learned she had a sister.

“I figured my dad had a child out there and she was like, ‘do you want her information?'” Brewton said. “I said ‘Yeah, of course.’ When I saw her picture, I said, ‘Oh my God, I finally look like somebody in my family.'”

When the two eventually got in touch, the surprises continued. Brewton said she told her the sister she grew up with has DNA links to the Brewton family.

“She was as like, ‘Okay when were you born?’ and I said, ‘April 25, 1975,’ and she said, ‘Okay what hospital?'” Brewton recounted. “I said, ‘Grapevine Memorial.’ She said, ‘Okay, the sister I grew up with was born April 24, 1975 at Grapevine Memorial.'”

All this leads them to believe they were switched at birth, going home to the wrong families.

“It’s just… it’s been a lot,” Brewton said.

Last year, she met the man believed to be her biological dad.

“My dad is an amazing, amazing man and loving and caring and I didn’t grow up with anything like that, so it’s been anger, sadness, joy, lots and lots of different feelings,” she said.

She said her biological mom passed away in 2019 so sadly, they never met.

Now, Brewton has hired an attorney. Earlier this month, they sued Baylor Scott & White, the hospital system that purchased Grapevine Memorial six years after Brewton was born.

“My understanding is they have taken on the liabilities of that previous hospital,” attorney Jonathan Wharton said. “This error occurred in 1975. That is the same year that the Texas legislature first started passing a bunch of limitations on medical malpractice cases. One of those limitations put a two-year statute of limitations for everyone’s medical malpractice cases regardless of whether the case was undiscoverable or against a minor.”

However, Wharton said technically the mix-up at the hospital happened one month before the law came into effect, so he thinks they have a case.

“What happened to me as a child was horrible, and the fact that I was given to the wrong family was absolutely horrible and unacceptable,” Brewton said.

She wants accountability.

In a statement to CBS News Texas – a spokesperson for Baylor Scott & White said, “It is important to note that Baylor Scott & White Health did not own, operate or manage the hospital until 1981.”

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