BREAKING NEWS: Babies Switched At Birth

aa Continuous update at the bottom of the post 

For almost a year two couples took care of a newborn baby that was not theirs. According to several Czech dailies the babies were mistakenly switched moments after the birth because of  a negligent nurse.

The baby is not yours, several pub buddies told their friend. The father then decided to take a DNA test that found that the baby indeed was not his baby. And since the couple was dead sure the woman was not cheating on him, the truth came out, iDNES.cz news server writes. 

The couple had the feeling something was wrong already in the hospital. According to the sonogram pictures, their daughter was supposed to be bigger after birth. Plus, both parents have dark hair but the kid was blond, CTK news agency investigated.

Five babies were born on that day, so there are three potential “daughters” that another couple is taking care of, while their real daughter is with the couple who is now considering a huge lawsuit. We will demand one million for every month, which means 10 million, the father’s brother told the media. 

The owner of the hospital, which is the district government of the Vysocina District hired a law firm. The lawyers have no idea how to approach this issue. They have never dealt with such an issue, the district governor said.

We love Nikola[the "fake daughter"] very much but we really need our daughter. I had to quit my job for a while, the father told a local daily.

It is obvious that the baby was not laid on the mother’s stomach immediately after the birth. Had this been done, the mothers would see their daughters and they would notice something was wrong if the babies were switched lately, for any reason….

i Related story: two women from the States learned they were switched — after 40 years.

UPDATE OCTOBER 4: According to several judges and lawyers who are quoted in today’s newspapers the family has a great chance to succeed with their lawsuitin which they will demand that the hospital pay 10 million crowns for switching the baby. “I can not imagine a worse infringement of the rights of a child and its family,” one of the judges told Mlada fronta Dnes daily.

The judges and lawyers still have one huge head-scratcher to solve. How the two families switch the babies back…

UPDATE OCTOBER 4: The two families met on a secret location today and they agreed they might switch the babies back in a few-weeks’ time. They all love the baby they have now but of course they want their own. The hospital is still investigating the incident… 

UPDATE OCTOBER 5: The babies’ birthday is on December 9. By this date the couples want to have their real child home, to celebrate with them… 

Newspaper Collectors! Want A Unique Piece?

Like I wrote in one of the posts below, former Czech President Vaclav Havel should become the editor-in-chief of Hospodarske noviny [a WSJ affiliate in the Czech Republic] for one day — next Wednesday. It is the same one-day thing Bono Vox did in The Independent.

UPDATE: I am an idiot. This unique experiment took place TODAY. Apologies… I was sure it was planned for next Wednesday…

The first two collectors from anywhere in the world who write to me at czechdaily [at] centrum [dot] cz can receive the paper in a manila envelope. So hurry )

No More Cell Phone Stealing

The police have introduced a new measure in fighting cell phone stealing. It will operate and maintain a black list of stolen phones. Anyone who has their phone stolen can come to a police precinct with a proof of purchase and an ID and the phone IMEI code. And it will stop working in 24 hours.

Yes, there are so-called experts who can forge the IMEI code but most Czechs are robbed of their phone by thieves who do not master this ability, like drug users who need to sell the phone to get money to buy some dope…

Average Czech: Sixteen Books A Year

According to a research conducted by the Czech Academy of Sciences, an average Czech reads sixteen books a year, iHNED.cz news sever wrote.

I wonder who reads my six books.

The same research found that women read more than men (duh!) and that seventeen percent of Czechs do not read at all. However this figure is way better than the European average which is 42 (yes, forty-two). In Portugal it is 67 percent, the server wrote.

It is interesting that the only place I read this year is a beach on vacation.