Last update:November 21, 2024, 2:46 p.m. IST

After a week, the mother came home with the wrong baby. Although she noticed differences in skin and hair color, she attributed them to the baby’s grandmother.

It wasn’t until around the year 2000 that Dokken learned the truth: the child she raised was not her biological daughter. (Representative/Shutterstock)

Two women in Norway recently discovered they had been switched at birth, changing their lives after six decades.

According to the New York Post, the two 59-year-old women were stunned to learn of the mix-up that occurred at the hospital when they were little. The incident occurred at Eggsbones Hospital in Norway, where a woman named Dokken gave birth on February 14, 1965. The hospital’s practice of keeping newborns together in a central nursery while the mothers recovered in separate rooms led to confusion.

When Dokken returned home after a week, unknowingly she had had the wrong baby. She named baby Mona after her maternal grandmother. Although Dokken noticed that Mona’s dark, curly hair differed from her own, she dismissed it, believing that the trait came from the baby’s grandmother.

It wasn’t until around the year 2000 that Dokken learned the truth: the child she raised was not her biological daughter. His real daughter, Linda Karin Risvik, was raised by another woman.

The truth, which could have been revealed in 1985, was covered up by Norwegian health workers. It wasn’t until Mona underwent a DNA test in 2021 that the truth was finally revealed. The two women are now suing the government for violating their rights and demanding an apology and compensation.

Unfortunately, Mona’s biological father is no longer alive. The woman who raised Dokken’s biological daughter had an inkling of the situation in 1981, but did not pursue it further.