Two little girls were reversed at birth and grew up in the wrong families
In 1989, two kids were born by Caesarean section 11 minutes apart in Puglia, Italy’s heel.
Lorena and Antonella were taken to the nursery and numbered 47 and 48 before being given to their moms, who smiled when they saw their daughters.
Unbeknownst to the two ladies, who had been given anesthesia for the birth, the kids they were given were not their own, and everyone’s lives were changed.
The Cobuzzis got Lorena. Loreta and Luigi Mazzone received Antonella.
Lorena, one of those babies, told MailOnline that the Cobuzzis, the people she thought were her parents, notified her 24 years later that she was not their true daughter.
Lorena, now 26, felt physically nauseated when she learned the truth two years ago at home.
‘They sat me down and told me something crucial. Two families visited the hospital that day, they said. The babies were reportedly switched.
‘I didn’t know who I was. I didn’t know who to call.
Lorena doesn’t know how the Cobuzzis discovered she wasn’t their daughter.
They said Antonella looked a lot like Caterina in a photo.
Antonella thought Elisa was her sister in the same shot, but it was actually Lorena.
The Cobuzzis told Lorena they called her biological mother Loreta and requested for a family portrait.
Antonella’s curly hair resembled my mother Caterina. Elisa was me. Lorena: Seeing myself in a snapshot.
The Cobuzzis may have suspected Lorena wasn’t their daughter and investigated.
The couple has never explained why they doubted she was their daughter.
After seeing the photo and learning the children had a birthday at Canosa Hospital, they got a DNA test to show Antonella was their daughter.
Both girls and their families are suing Italian health officials for €22 million over the maternity ward mix-up.
Lorena’s lawyer told MailOnline: ‘It’s the first case of its type. Hospitals have switched infants before. After 24 years, no one knew.’
The two sets of parents took their newborns home a few miles apart in Trinitapoli, Puglia, near Bari on the Adriatic coast.
The Cobuzzi sisters took Lorena home. Antonella joined Loreta and Luigi.
Despite living nearby, the girls’ lifestyles were different.
Lorena and her brother Francesco were raised by the caring Cobuzzis.
Despite not having much money, they were a close-knit family who offered Lorena stability as a child.
They’re Catholic and raised two religious kids.
Antonella struggled. Her parents’ marriage ended in divorce. Fidele and Elisa were Antonella’s siblings.
Loreta, the woman she thought was her mother, allegedly ‘rarely called the child by her name but used swearwords and abuse of every type’
The Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno said that the family often lacked food.
Antonella slept with Fidele, who had diabetes and wet the bed at night. Even then, the newspaper stated, sheets wouldn’t be replaced.
After their father Luigi left for a new partner, their mother Loreta moved to Turin.
Grandparents raised Antonella and her siblings.
Antonella and Elisa were adopted at 16 since their grandparents couldn’t care for them. Fidele, her sick brother, stayed with them.
Antonella and Elisa were adopted by a couple in nearby Foggia. Court filings show Antonella considers the Zangas her parents.
