Law Commentary - California Edition
Texas Woman Switched at Birth Sues New Hospital Owners
A 49-year-old Texas woman has filed a lawsuit against Dallas-based hospital healthcare system Baylor Scott and White. Her lawsuit alleges that she was switched at birth with another baby, causing her to experience preventable pain and suffering.
Growing up, Melissa Brewton says that she always felt out of place within her family. She shared with local outlet, Star-Telegram, “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.”
Suspicions of not fitting in came to fruition after her daughter took a DNA test, wanting to learn more about her ancestry and ethnic background. When her daughter took the Ancestry DNA take-home test, her results yielded that she had a possible biological aunt, an aunt that neither she nor her mother were aware of.
Initially, Brewton thought that her father may have had another child that she did not know about. Brewton would eventually connect with her biological sister through social media, and it was through talking with her biological sister that the women pierced together Brewton was swapped at birth with another baby.
Brewton and another girl were born just a day apart in April 1975 in the former Grapevine Memorial Hospital (now Baylor Scott and White of Grapevine). At the time of her birth, Brewton says she and that other baby were switched, causing each one to go home with a mother and father who were not their biological parents.
Brewton was able to meet her biological dad, describing him as an amazing man who was loving and caring. She expressed her sadness that she did not get to grow up with her biological father and instead was raised in a household that caused her a lot of anger and sadness.
“My mom worked three jobs most of the time. 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." Brewton shared.
Brewton goes on to explain that her true mom passed away in 2019 and she was never able to meet her biological mother.
In late November, Brewton filed a lawsuit against Baylor Scott and White Health Systems, the current owners of the hospital system where she was born, even though they had taken over the old hospital six years after Bewton was born.
Her attorney Jonathan Wharton believes that he and his client have a case against the hospital system, despite the transfer of ownership. Wharton explained to CBS News that he believes the hospital should take on the liabilities of the previous hospital system despite legislation that was passed around the time of Brewton’s birth.
"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," Wharton explained. Still, Wharton says that the hospital error occurred a month before the law went into effect, leaving open the question of liability.
A spokesperson for Baylor Scott and White issued a statement to CBS News Texas distancing itself from the claims made in the lawsuit. The spokesperson defended the hospital explaining, “It is important to note that Baylor Scott & White Health did not own, operate or manage the hospital until 1981."
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