2 Women Sue Hospital After Alleged Baby Swap 37 Years Ago

Two women in southern China have sued a hospital after DNA tests showed they were allegedly switched at birth 37 years ago, according to a report by China Newsweek.

Li Hui and Huang Xiaolin were both born at Qingyuan People’s Hospital in Guangdong Province on October 3, 1989, 55 minutes apart. Their families said they only learned in 2025 that the daughters they had raised were not biologically related to them.

Birth records showed that the two women were born at 2:30am and 3:25am. Their mothers recalled that after delivery, the babies were taken away to be weighed and have their umbilical cords cut before being sent to the nursery. At the time, newborns at the hospital were not given identity wristbands. Instead, paper cards with registration information were placed in or tied to the babies’ blankets.

The families said they still do not know at which point the alleged mix-up occurred. Both mothers said hospital conditions were basic at the time, staffing was tight and the maternity ward occasionally had power outages.

Huang, who had long questioned her family background, first underwent paternity tests in July 2022. The tests showed she was not biologically related to either the father or mother who raised her.

In April 2025, Li received a call from local police asking her to provide a DNA sample as part of Huang’s search for her biological family. A later forensic test confirmed that Zhu, who raised Li, was Huang’s biological mother, while Huang’s father and Yu, the woman who raised Huang, were Li’s biological parents, according to a police reply issued by a Qingyuan police station in August 2025.

The two women later met in a shopping mall café. Li said she accepted the result after seeing that Huang resembled the father and younger brother from the family that raised her.

The two families lived only about 4 to 5 kilometers apart, but the women grew up in different circumstances. Huang was raised in a family with a civil servant father and a mother who worked at a public institution. Her parents divorced in 1994, and she later lived with her mother. Li grew up in a farming family that ran a small grocery store. She left vocational school after one year and began working to support her family.

Li and Huang said they contacted Qingyuan People’s Hospital after learning of the alleged baby swap and tried to obtain maternity records from 1989. They said the hospital told them the records could no longer be found. Hospital staff also said some medical workers involved at the time had retired or died, and advised the families to pursue legal action.

The women have filed a lawsuit against Qingyuan People’s Hospital, accusing medical staff of negligence and seeking compensation for emotional distress, medical expenses, legal fees and other losses. Their combined claims total more than 2.6 million yuan (US$360,000). Li is seeking more than 1.41 million yuan for support payments and family-related losses.

The case is scheduled to be heard on August 13, 2026.

A staff member from the hospital’s Party office told China Newsweek that the matter had entered the judicial process and was being handled according to law. The staff member did not disclose details of any internal investigation, saying the incident happened more than 30 years ago and the result would depend on the court.