Families sue hospital 20 years after baby switch

GRASSE, France, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- The French families of two 20-year-old women are suing the hospital where they were mistakenly switched at birth.

The families made a court appearance Tuesday in Grasse as part of their lawsuit, which is seeking a total of $15 million.

Sophie Serrano told the court her daughter, Manon, suffered from jaundice when she was born in July 1994 and she was placed in an incubator with another newborn girl with the same condition.

Serrano said she and her husband discovered when the girl was 10 that they were not her biological parents and she had been switched with the other girl when a nurse removed the infants from the incubator.

Serrano and the other family's parents, who asked to remain anonymous, met their biological daughters when the girls were 10 years old, but they chose not to switch the children back. Sophie Serrano told the Nice Matin newspaper, however, she "instinctively loved" her biological daughter.

"I have raised three children but in my heart I have four," Sophie Serrano said.

The lawsuit names the clinic, two obstetricians, two pediatricians and an auxiliary nurse.