Men sue hospital after DNA tests showed they were switched at birth 38 years ago

The families of two men who discovered through DNA tests that they were switched at birth 38 years ago have accused a North Dakota hospital of stealing the lives they were meant to have.

Kyle Beilein discovered his birth family after taking an at-home quiz that he chose at random during a Christmas gift exchange. This led to his biological aunt being on the genealogy platform. Her nephew, Jeremy Morrison, was then DNA tested. The results were irrefutable.

“Then my mind was in a complete daze,” Belen said. “We could never have imagined that what happened was an actual birth switch.”

Morrison said he was convinced once he saw a photo of Belen’s brother and realized they looked very similar.

Belen and Morrison were the only children born on January 26, 1988, at Unity Medical Center in Grafton, North Dakota, according to the lawsuit filed in state court last week. Somehow, they came home with the wrong parents.

A hospital statement said there was no evidence that employees were responsible for the switch.

But Beilein, whose real name is Jeremy Morrison, says he still has the hospital bracelet that misidentified him as Kyle Beilein.

Hospital records no longer exist

It’s been two years since DNA tests shattered what they thought they knew about their families — including confusing moments, emotional family reunions and thoughts of what-ifs.

“Kyle is still my son, and that will never change,” Evelyn Newton, who raised him as her own son, told The Associated Press in a phone interview Friday. “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 can you make up for that?”

The hospital does not dispute that the babies were switched at some point. It says it is working to better understand what happened, but has uncovered no evidence that its management or employees were responsible for the mistake that changed people’s lives.

“We recognize the profound impact this discovery has had on them and their families,” the medical unit’s statement said. “Unfortunately, because nearly four decades have passed, the medical and employment records that would have provided additional clarity no longer exist, and none of the birth team members from that time work at the hospital.”

The knowledge hasn’t changed the way Morrison feels about the family he’s always known. He still considers the parents he grew up with – Elizabeth O’Toole and Terry Morrison – as his own. Aside from some difficult times – such as wishing he had a brother he could depend on when he was seven and then they broke up – he says his childhood was good.

“I was popular. I played sports. I did well in school,” Morrison said. “DNA testing will not erase 38 years of memories.”

The shocking truth led to passionate encounters

Morrison now lives in Colorado City, Colorado, and works as a welding inspector for a wind energy company. If he had not been switched at birth, he would have remained with his biological brother and father, working on the grain farm in North Dakota where Belin grew up.

Newton said she never thought Kyle might not be their biological son, since she and her then-husband, Keith Belin, were raising him. It is true that the immediate family members had light hair and Kyle had dark hair. But her husband had dark-haired relatives, and Newton herself was adopted, so she didn’t know what her blood relatives looked like.

For Belen, questions about nature versus nurture became more personal. As he pursued his academic career away from North Dakota, he saw that political discussions over Thanksgiving dinner were merely a staple of American family life.

“You’re just kind of shaking your fist, like, ‘How can this be my family? How am I different from them?’ Belen said. “It turns out we’re just completely different people, period.”

Belen and Morrison have now met their biological parents, and said the meetings were welcoming but awkward. They haven’t met each other yet, but they talked on the phone.

“We tried to come together as a group and realize that no matter what, there are different ways this can lead to social chaos,” Belen said. “Everyone gets to know people they never knew before.”

Others discovered that they were switched at birth

Such cases are rare, but at-home DNA tests make them easier to detect:

1. In 2024, two women sued the government of Norway alleging human rights violations after discovering they had been switched.

2. Two men who believe they were switched at birth in 1942 filed a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of West Virginia in 2020, alleging negligence and breach of duty by the hospital where they were born.

3. In 2018 in Pennsylvania, a test revealed that two girls were switched about 75 years ago.

4. In 2016, the Canadian government launched an investigation after DNA evidence suggested that two men from an Indigenous community in northern Manitoba were switched at birth in 1975.

5. In 2024, two women sued the government of Norway alleging human rights violations after discovering they had been switched.

Modern technology helps hospitals prevent switching

Such mix-ups should happen “close to never” at present, says Dr. Jonathan Maron, a pediatric oncologist who also teaches at the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School.

“More often than not, doctors, doctors, nurses, social workers and everyone else are all complaining about electronic health records,” Marrone said, digital support is a clear benefit.

Attorney Tim O’Keefe said he tried for a year to reach a cash settlement with the hospital before filing a lawsuit alleging emotional distress due to negligence and medical malpractice. Families have spent this time adjusting to the new reality.

“I know the truth now, but we are still working on building relationships,” Morrison said. “I mean I can’t go back in time and rebuild what I’ve already lost. It’s a work in progress, just like me.”

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Susan Montoya Bryan contributed from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Johnson reported from Seattle and Schoettler reported from Phoenix. Schoettler is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.