Two men filed a lawsuit after they reportedly discovered that they were switched at birth back in 1942.
John Carr III and Jackie Spencer were born the same day at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Buckhannon, West Virginia. The two are now suing the Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, which ran the hospital, over the alleged mix-up, according to ABC News.
The lawsuit claims that Spencer, Carr, and the two families involved suffered a “lifetime of consequences” because of the error. The swap was discovered after Spencer spent decades searching for the man he believed was his birth father, a man who his mother said had abandoned him before his birth. When Spencer located relatives of the man, a DNA test reportedly showed they were not related. Further tests and research found he was instead related to Carr’s family.
“Many of the people Jack should have known his entire life are gone,” the lawsuit reads. “He feels as though most of his family died all at once. He grieves for the loss of the life he was supposed to have, while reconciling those feeling with the love and gratitude he feels for the family he has known his whole life.”
Carr said in the lawsuit he always felt out of place in his family and didn’t feel like he fit in because his family had brown eyes and brown hair while he was born with blue eyes. The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages.
