From the left, Caroline Weir-Greene with her birth parents and siblings, Randy Lush, Ruth Lush, Caroline, Wilfred Lush, Tina Lush-Snow and seated, Jason Lush. Ms. Wier-Greene was switched at birth more than half a century ago in the central Newfoundland town of Triton.Greg Locke/The Globe and Mail
An independent review into how two sets of babies were switched at birth in Newfoundland and Labrador would shed light on how mistakes were made and what can be learned from them, said the co-author of a 2017 clinical review into infant misidentification.
“It could also answer questions that the families have and deserve to have answered, regardless of the passage of time,” said Maura Davies, also a former CEO and president of the Saskatoon Health Region, now residing in Halifax and Charlottetown. “In many cases, practices have changed very significantly, but hopefully there’s still opportunities to learn.”
Ms. Davies is a co-author of Health Canada’s 2017 clinical review into two cases of infant misidentification that occurred in Manitoba in 1975. That independent review found the switches were accidental and a result of not following standard identification procedures.
Despite the precedent in Manitoba, the Newfoundland and Labrador government has so far refused to review how two sets of babies were switched at birth at two different provincially run cottage hospitals in rural Newfoundland in the 1960s or publicly apologize to families for the life-altering mistake. A Globe and Mail story last month revealed now two known sets of switches in the province: one discovered this past January involving two baby girls switched at birth at the Springdale Cottage Hospital in central Newfoundland in 1969, and another discovered in 2019 involving two men born at the Come By Chance Cottage Hospital on the Avalon Peninsula in 1962.
In an interview in August, Tom Osborne, the Minister of Health and Community Services in Newfoundland, said practices have changed and therefore a review isn’t necessary.
When two sets of switched-at-birth cases came to light in 2015 and 2016 at a federally run hospital in northern Manitoba, the government of Canada apologized, ordered a formal review, offered DNA testing to others, provided support for counselling, and an undisclosed financial settlement that included parents and siblings of the victims, said Eric Robinson, a former deputy premier of Manitoba involved in the negotiations for the four switched-at-birth victims in his province. No provincial financial support has been offered to the affected families in Newfoundland.
Mr. Robinson, who advocated for the four Indigenous men switched at birth at Norway House in his province, said when he read The Globe’s story on the cases in Newfoundland, he felt compelled to reach out to some of the victims.
“I’ve heard the cries and the pain of the people that experienced it directly. I can’t even imagine how they feel about this hurt that’s been inflicted on them, not by any means of their fault but the fault of a system that’s messed up,” he said during an interview from his home in Winnipeg.
“Something’s got to happen for these folks,” he said. “We’re talking about human lives and people getting [mentally] ill as a result of what transpired way back when.”
Mistakes including patient misidentification still happen, said Dr. David Creery, the co-author of the independent review. Often when mistakes are made in health care, there’s not one single cause; errors usually happen when a combination of circumstances occur, even when safeguards are in place or are supposed to be in place, Ms. Davies said.
“When you do these reviews, it can enlighten or at least remind people of the importance of adhering to those practice changes, which is important to occur for every patient, every time, regardless of time and place,” Ms. Davies said.
In the Newfoundland cases, she says there may be some answers as there was in the Norway House, Man., review. Although it was a painful journey for the people affected to go through, the review yielded a minute-by-minute timeline through interviews, documents and a site visit, which helped piece together the circumstances that may have contributed to the error.
In 2019, two men, Clarence Hynes and Craig Avery, who grew up in small outport fishing communities in Newfoundland discovered through DNA testing that they were switched at birth at the Come By Chance Cottage Hospital. They have been asking the provincial government for support and reparations for the mistake, which has upended their lives. Mr. Hynes was unable to work for a period of time and continues to struggle with clinical depression. One of his new biological siblings, with whom Mr. Avery grew up, was also affected and his family believes the medical error contributed to his suicide.
In 2022, Ruth and Wilfred Lush from the central Newfoundland town of Triton discovered the daughter they gave birth to more than half a century earlier had been switched at birth at the Springdale Cottage Hospital. The dynamics and fallout between the two families have been hurtful and people are struggling emotionally with how to navigate their new reality. Arlene Lush, one of the daughters who was switched at birth, has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. The other daughter, Caroline Weir-Greene, is suffering too and is struggling to cope day-to-day.
Mr. Robinson said the federal government should intervene in Newfoundland because provinces administer health care under the Canadian Health Act. The act sets out the primary objective of Canadian health-care policy, which is to “protect, promote and restore the physical and mental well-being of residents of Canada …”
“They should get some support and some respect,” Mr. Robinson said about the families affected. “The damage has been done. These people were wronged and that’s a violation.”
Mr. Robinson called for a national strategy in the event other people have suspicions about being switched at birth or more cases arise.
More cases are bound to emerge because of the growing popularity of DNA testing through ancestry kits ordered online, said Dr. Creery, the co-author of the independent review and medical director of patient safety and family partnership at Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO). But he questioned the need to pursue a systemic approach to uncovering the prevalence of switched-at-birth mistakes.
“There are broader bioethical issues and consent issues that you’d have to look into – do people really want to know? They’ve been living happily thinking their parents are their parents. Do they really want to know they’re not?” said Dr. Creery. “Is that a stone we want to turn over across Canada from the 60s and 70s? I’m just not sure.”