SAN SALVADOR:
The months-long saga of a two babies switched shortly after birth at an exclusive private hospital in El Salvador and given to the wrong mothers has ended after the infants were returned to their biological families, government officials said on Tuesday.
The baby exchange took place behind closed doors at the offices of the attorney general's building in the capital of San Salvador late on Monday.
The controversy began on May 21 after Mercedes Soto gave birth to a son. The father of the child is Richard Cushworth, a British national. When Soto left the hospital a few days after giving birth she noticed that the infant given to her had darker skin than she remembered from her first encounter with the newborn, eventually prompting her to seek a DNA test weeks later which concluded she was not the mother of the boy.
The parents of the other child have not made any public statements to date while all court records containing their names have been sealed.
The doctor who performed the birth, Antonio Guidos, has been named the main suspect by a judge in the case while an investigation is ongoing.
© Thomson Reuters 2015