Two men who spent 38 years living in families that were not biologically their own have filed a lawsuit against the North Dakota hospital where they were born, after DNA tests confirmed they were switched at birth.
Kyle Bylin discovered the truth by chance. He had taken an at-home DNA test chosen randomly during a Christmas gift exchange. The test led him to his biological aunt on a genealogy platform. Her nephew, Jeremy Morrison, then had his own DNA tested. The results were conclusive.
"That's when my mind was just completely blown," Bylin said. "We could have never imagined that it was an actual birth switch that occurred."
Morrison said he was convinced as soon as he saw a photo of Bylin's brother. They looked very much alike.
According to their lawsuit, filed in state court last week, Bylin and Morrison were the only babies born on January 26, 1988, at Unity Medical Center in Grafton, North Dakota. Somehow, they went home with the wrong parents. Bylin, who was born Jeremy Morrison, says he still has the hospital bracelet that misidentified him as Kyle Bylin.
The hospital does not dispute that the babies were switched at some point. But a hospital statement says there is no evidence that staff were responsible. Unity Medical said it is working to better understand what happened. "We recognize the profound impact this discovery has had on them and their families," the hospital's statement says. "Unfortunately, because of the passage of nearly four decades, the medical and staffing records that might have provided additional clarity no longer exist, and no members of the delivery team from that time are still employed by the hospital."
The woman who raised Bylin as her son spoke to the Associated Press about what the discovery meant to her. "Kyle is still my son — that is never going to change," said Evelyn Newton. "But I feel robbed of the life I should have had with my biological son. You can't go back and replace 35 years. First steps, driving a car, getting married — how do you make up for that?"
Morrison, for his part, said the DNA results have not changed how he feels about the family he grew up with. He still considers Elizabeth O'Toole and Terry Morrison, who divorced when he was 7, to be his parents. "I was loved. I played sports. I did well in school," Morrison said.
Two years have passed since the DNA tests upended what both men thought they knew about themselves. The lawsuit accuses Unity Medical Center of robbing them of the lives they were supposed to lead.
