Czech police drop investigation into hospital baby mix-up

Nov 1, 2007, 15:12 GMT

Prague - Czech police Thursday closed their investigation into the case in which two newborn girls were swapped in a Czech hospital nearly 11 months ago, CTK news agency reported.

The police confirmed that hospital employees must have swapped the babies within five hours after the girls were born in early morning on December 9, 2006.

After birth, nurses carried the babies away from their mothers' rooms to bathe them. Several hours later they returned the babies - but to the wrong parents.

The police did not find out who actually swapped the newborns in the paediatric ward and said that the mix-up could be declared as neither a crime nor as a misdemeanor.

The lawyer for the families however insists that several crimes were committed and plans to file a complaint against the police decision, CTK reported.

The hospital in the town of Trebic, 170 kilometres east of Prague, earlier punished seven medical staff members, including both doctors and nurses, involved in the case.

The mix-up has shattered lives of thee two families, who found out that they have not been raising their biological daughters in September.

The family of Libor Broza, a 29-year-old truck driver, underwent genetic paternity testing, a result of his suspicion that the blond girl, who showed no resemblance to him, was not his child.

Authorities soon located Jan Cermak, 27, and his wife Jaroslava, 25, who had been raising Broza's biological daughter.

The parents agreed to exchange the toddlers by their first birthday, but are likely to delay the swap.

Deeply traumatized mothers, who have nursed and cuddled the baby girls as their own for 10 months, are far from ready for the move, the families said.