Two Girls Were Switched At Birth, So Their Families Made A Drastic Decision

Melissa Fodurah and Katerina Alania lived dramafree lives when they were young girls. But that didn’t last forever. You see, the pair had been unintentionally switched as babies at the hospital, and once their moms found out what had happened, they made a huge, huge decision that changed everything. We can only imagine what was going through those mother’s minds once the shocking truth came to light. After all, how would you react if you found out your child wasn’t actually yours?

It would be devastating. And the hospital responsible for the mix up had a lot to answer for. We know how it happened, though. Melissa and katarina’s moms were both in the same hospital in sicily. It was new year’s eve, 1998, and both were in labor.

Melissa and katarina were delivered within 15 minutes of each other, too, but that doesn’t excuse what came next. Marinella Alana was handed baby melissa at the hospital instead of her biological daughter, Katerina. Katarina, on the other hand, went home with Gisela, photograph Melissa’s mom. And to make matters even worse, the shocking air wouldn’t be uncovered for another three years. It sounds like the plot of a hollywood movie, but it was as real as it gets for the italian women.

Gisella and marinella were then put into a horrible position, one that would agonize any mother. But how did the switch even happen in the first place? Perhaps the date had something to do with it. As it was new year’s eve, the hospital staff around marinella and gisela may have been celebrating and not giving the babies their full attention. That could go some way to explaining the mix up.

Yet it doesn’t tell the entire story. You see, Gisella and marinella already had suspicions that something was off. The two moms zeroed in on the baby’s clothing, as neither girl was wearing the same outfit. They had last been seen in quite the red flag, and it led gisele and marilynn to speak up. The women both mentioned this fact to the staff around them, hoping they’d get a good explanation, and they received one, although it was incorrect.

Apparently nurses claimed the baby’s clothes had simply been switched. There was no reason to believe they were lying, either. Giselle and marinella accepted this and eventually took the girls home. And as the years passed, young Melissa and kanerina were raised just as if they were their mom’s birth daughters. Then marinella spotted something, or rather someone, that made her question everything she’d known.

By that point, Katerina and melissa were both toddlers, and coincidentally, the girls attended the same preschool in sicily. This proved to be important, as it was the way marinella eventually got to the stunning truth about her daughter. At the end of one school day, marinella had gone to meet Melissa and bring her home. But as the pair got ready to leave, someone else within the crowd of kids caught the mom’s eye. It was young Katerina.

Incredibly, Marinella’s biological daughter was within touching distance, although she didn’t yet know they were related. Yet, Marinella quickly picked up on something. She saw that Katarina was practically the spitting image of her two other children melissa’s sisters. And it didn’t stop there. Before she knew it, a familiar face also appeared at the preschool.

I recognized Katerina’s mother Gisela photograph from the maternity ward and got suspicious, the Daily Mail quoted Marinella is saying. And just like that, her concerns about the true identity of her child came flooding back. This time, Marinella wanted to clear things up once and for all. Yet something tells us she wasn’t fully prepared for what came next. 15 days later, we did DNA tests, and my mind went blank.

It was too surreal, too impossible, the mom continued. The genetic testing proved that Caterina was indeed Marinella’s biological child, while Melissa was jazelles. But amid the shock and confusion, the Italian moms had a huge decision to make one that could change the outcome of their lives forever. There wasn’t an easy answer, as neither Marinella nor Gisele were eager to swap the girls again. Ultimately, that would mean they’d be living apart from their daughters, but Gisele explained her view in no uncertain terms.

I challenge anyone to raise a daughter for three years, then give her up over a simple mistake, Gisella said in an interview quoted by the sun. Plenty of parents would struggle with that same dilemma. But then the two moms came to their final decision after giving it some thought. Giselle and Marinella knew they needed to make the swamp, but they didn’t want to rush into it, as they knew they needed to consider what was best for the girls. Any sudden moves would be disturbing and traumatizing for Melissa and Katarina, so their moms came up with a neat and pretty incredible plan.

Instead of leaving behind the daughters they had raised, marinella and Gisela decided to look after them as a team. That meant both Melissa and Katerina essentially had two moms. It was unorthodox, to say the least, and the next step of the plan was even more bizarre. To help bring up the girls, Giselle and Marinella’s families even moved in together. But this didn’t turn out to be a longterm arrangement, as the two moms were eventually presented with a new dilemma.

You see, Marinella and Gisela were advised by specialists to separate their daughters for six months at the very least. That way, Katerina and Melissa would hopefully find it easier to come to terms with living with their birth moms. But even if this was for the girl’s benefit, MARANELLA and Gisela found it very tough. We two mothers cried on the phone to each other each day, Marinella said in an interview quoted by the Daily Mail. And after three months, we decided we couldn’t resist, and we met and promised never to separate.

But would going against the expert’s advice work out for the best? After that, I saw Melissa every day. How could I not? Marinella added. I breastfed her, taught her first words.

We had to share everything. The mother daughter bond was already strong, and the results of a DNA test weren’t going to get in the way of that. So the two families came together again and formed an even stronger bond than before, and from there, they pretty much merged into one big clan. Melissa and Katarina certainly saw it that way. As they explained to the Spanish newspaper El Curio, melissa and Katerina told the paper, we’re a phenomenon.

We have eight grandparents, two fathers and two mothers. And the incredible tale went on to inspire a book titled Sisters Forever and written by Marco Kaparico. After getting to know the girls, he had a few insights to reveal, too. As quoted by the Sun, Capricio said Katerina and Melissa chose to live together during the weekends and in their free time, and the girls were classmates until college. They’re considered twins when they were little.

They always wanted to be together, and this helped the adults a lot. How sweet. But we can’t help but wonder, when did Melissa and Kane discover the truth? Well, despite the unorthodox arrangements between the two families, they were kept in the dark for quite a while. Gisella and Marinella didn’t come clean until the kids were a little older.

Katerina and Melissa were eight, in fact, when it all came out in the open. But the girls took it in their stride. It seemed like a game, and today, neither of us have any memory of life before we were three, Melissa explained. Growing up, I had Marinella as a second mother, and she still is. But as tight as Melissa and Katerina’s bond was, they did eventually bart ways.

Both went to college, but they didn’t attend the same classes after having spent so much time together, this may have taken the sisters a little while to adjust to. Melissa even moved to the Italian mainland after enrolling at Dawnsio University, 400 miles in a ferry ride away from her hode town. And the two women’s personal lives have blossom, too, since their moms first came up with the unusual arrangement. Melissa has been with her bonino scotoro for around a decade, and the happy couple are now engaged. Katerina is in a relationship, too, and the women in their other half may yet see themselves on the silver screen, given what happened on that fateful day in December 1998.

Marinella and Gisela did take legal action against the hospital, and in time, they did receive financial compensation for the jaw dropping mix up. But that’s as far as it went. Despite the mom’s home, gisella and Marinella wanted the staff members responsible for the mistake to face punishment, too. In the end, though, there weren’t really any consequences. The people involved didn’t even lose their jobs, and they kept working at the Italian hospital long after news of the baby switch came to light that may have been disappointing to Marinella and Gisella, who had been left to deal with the fallout of the catastrophic error.