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Bringing home (the wrong) baby
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Like a lot of expectant parents do, 35-year-old Cristina Zahariuc purchased an outfit for her newborn baby to wear home from the hospital. So when it finally came time to bring little Ana Maria home, the hospital staff dutifully changed the newborn into her 'going home' clothes. The happy family returned to their Horlesti, Romania home and all was going well until Zahariuc unwrapped her little bundle of joy for her first diaper change. "Only when I got home and I invited some friends and the baby's godparents to see her did I notice my girl had a penis. I was paralyzed," said Zahariuc.No, the hospital had not been mistaken about the sex of the Zahariuc's newborn baby - they had sent the new parents home with the wrong newborn baby. Apparently the little boy they were given had a very similar last name - Zaharia - and was situated in a cot right next to Ana Maria's.
Obviously, the confused parents immediately called the hospital where they were treated like pranksters. "It was very strange though. We were calling the hospital to tell them about the confusion and they were hanging up on us saying we should stop fooling around. They thought we were playing tricks on them," said new dad Constantin Zahariuc.
I guess all is well that ends well, but imagine how different things could have turned out. If the Zaharia infant had been a girl, there is a good chance the mix up might never have been detected. Tragedy averted thanks to a penis!
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ReaderComments (Page 5 of 10)
11-10-2008 @ 5:37PM
english101 said...Ridiculous! Come to a chat area and start correcting grammar and punctuation??? Perhaps all of you who need grammar and punctuation to read a chat log need to stick to your "How To" books.
I find the mixed up babies stories fascinating, and am able to understand every word. Thank you all for sharing your stories.
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11-10-2008 @ 6:39PM
pjordan said...I would like to know, why didn't the mother look at the baby's face before she got home. What took her so long to unwrap the baby in the first place? A good mother would have recognized if they gave her a boy or girl!
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11-10-2008 @ 5:38PM
Annie said...The moral of this story is: Bring a magic marker into the delivery room, and label your baby before it leaves the room.
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11-10-2008 @ 5:45PM
iStahtIt? said...22 years ago we were sent home with the wrong baby , we were both color blind back then, recently we both received an optical operation and now have normal vision ,you can imagine our surprise - our baby girl is white - but she got the ' jive ' down good.
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11-10-2008 @ 5:48PM
Steve said...All I can say is "Saved by the BALLS!"
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11-10-2008 @ 5:48PM
Granny said...Read and reread but did not see the city or country or hospital name. Would be intereseted to find that out.
To Anita...chief of the grammer police...get a life..I was able to figure out what she wrote and meant. Sorry if you were not able to do so.
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11-10-2008 @ 5:49PM
granny said...OPPPs third time is the charm...Finally saw Rumania...
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11-10-2008 @ 5:50PM
Andy said...Seems to me that all of the nasty and catty replies and comments to this story are female. No surprise there, given the nature of females. So , since the ugliness is directed toward another female, I guess the slings and arrows are headed toward someone who is familiar with it. If any guys out there replied (between guffaws and gales of laughter, not to mention giggles and snickers) it was simply to give the catty girlies a verbal boot in the butt, What a bunch of beyutches!
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11-10-2008 @ 5:56PM
Alicia said...I memorized my daughter's face the moment they brought her to me. I don't see how you could take home a baby that wasn't yours!
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11-10-2008 @ 5:56PM
Dee Dee said...I love Tacoma General. My oldest grandaughter was born there 18 years ago today {HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATASHA} Security was great then. Eight years ago on New Years Eve I was finally going to get to see a birth {I wear glasses and since I had my own kids so long ago and had so many problems I did indeed have to have them off for the blessed event...actually had them all natural, but threw the glasses off because of the pain} But I was going to get to see my grandson born AND get to cut the cord. But circumstances prevented that. She ended up with a semi-emergency C-section. I did get to hold him first!!! He was in neo-tato {I know that may be misspelled for you fact checkers} for a couple of days.
Security at Tacoma General was tight 18 years ago. 8 years ago it was amazing. I was running between floors because I was the only one there to bond with the baby...yet I had to be with my baby. She was in pain. No matter how many times I went into that nursery I had to go through doors and show my bracelet and my numbers had better well match that newborn in the warmer. Even though the nurses knew me by then...they checked and double checked us.
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11-10-2008 @ 5:56PM
Brandi said...When my twins were born the doctor let my husband put their initials on my twins feet. Two reasons, 1 we got the right babies, 2 we knew which name was for which twin.
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11-10-2008 @ 6:15PM
cjtnnr said...Wow I am glad that so many people are up on their grammer I understood everthing Sharon had to say. I am glad she got her baby back, It goes to show you mother's instints are usually right. And I am glad that the people got their baby back. I don't know what I would have done I had my girl at 7:00 pm and she stayed in the room with me all night I called my mom at midnight crying because she wouldn't quit crying begging my mom to take her back to where ever she came from. Come to find out later she didn't like the blanket wrapped around her once we took it off she was wonderful.
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11-10-2008 @ 6:26PM
Floyd said...quit complaining about her grammar. Just be happy for her she got the right one finally
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11-10-2008 @ 7:18PM
Debbie said...I, for one, am very glad that there are penises in this world. However, I am equally glad that I am not a penis owner. Just thought I would share that. Everyone have a great evening.
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11-10-2008 @ 6:28PM
Jodi said...When my son was born the nurse scratched his leg with the needle. At first I was mad, but then I thought " I will always know which one he is." He was in my room the entire 2 days I was at the hospital. He never left my side. I still like it that way......
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11-10-2008 @ 6:26PM
Ruthie said...18 years ago i went into labor at 7 months i hemorrhaged they did an emergency c-section since Toni was a preemie they sent her to a different hospital and left me where i delivered her. I don't remember much of anything from Wed to Fri. My ex-husband however was wonderful making sure she was ok and everything went well, so I actually didn't get to see her other for the few seconds when i was groggy from anesthia i didn't get to see her for 6 days when she was brought back to the hospital where i was it was scarry but everything worked out well
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11-10-2008 @ 6:29PM
mldspenser said...Brittany, if you really don't see the problems in Anita's post, I fear for your third graders. While you're teaching them not to say anything unless it is "nice", do you also teach them not to say anything unless it makes sense? Please, remember it's your job to foster communication, not just bland "nice"ness!
I'm sure Anita speaks better than she writes, because if she didn't, her life would be in constant turmoil. Nobody would know what she wanted. Her second post was easier to understand than the first one. Perhaps she took her time writing it, or read it over more carefully when she finished it. I wish more people would do that because I like to understand what you all are trying to say. If you don't follow the rules of spelling and punctuation, it makes it hard for other people to concentrate on what you want to tell them.
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11-10-2008 @ 6:36PM
jill said...I don't understand how you can't be upset? I knew what my child looked like, why did you not look at that child before you left the hospital? Was the face completely covered and you rode that way all the way home and till when ever the baby smelled bad enough to change the diaper? I am sorry, but I think you would know the difference between a girl and boy face. NAtionality or not, you look at your baby when you put it in the car seat, or any other time. There is something wrong with parents that don't look at their infants at a hospital. I have 3 and I looked at all of them more than once and all the way home.
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11-10-2008 @ 6:41PM
Annie Jeffers said...Anita,
Go teach school or wherever!
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11-10-2008 @ 6:40PM
30 said...Is it my imagination, or does Sharon still not realize her grammer was being made fun of - it's as though she thinks the insults are about the genuiness of her story. The rest of you morons, just keep breeding. I need a new generation of worker bees down at the plant.
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