[Seocho-dong Legal Talk] Newborn Baby Lost 0.2kg Overnight, Nurse Had a Hunch

The Inside Story of the Incident at an Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic in Gumi, Gyeongbuk on March 31, 2018

Hundreds to thousands of people visit courts of all levels nationwide every day. The reasons for visiting the court vary: to face judgment for committed crimes, to appeal grievances, to reach amicable settlements, and countless others. We aim to shed light on these individual stories and the facts behind the scenes of each hearing at the court. This is the Seocho-dong Legal Story.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Jo] April 1, 2018. A neonatal ward in an obstetrics and gynecology hospital in Gumi, Gyeongbuk. The weight of a baby girl was unusual. 3.235kg. It had dropped by a whopping 0.225kg compared to the previous day. The baby was born two days earlier weighing 3.485kg. The mother, Ms. Kim, was 19 years old at the time. She gave birth via cesarean section at around 00:56 on the day. The weight measured the day after birth was 3.460kg. This was inexplicable. Newborns typically gain or lose about 0.06kg per day. But losing more than 0.2kg in one day was an absurd amount of change. At that moment, the nurse thought, 'Did I measure the weight of a different baby?'

There was another strange occurrence. When the nurse tried to change the baby's diaper and removed the swaddle, the identification band on the right ankle was missing. Even when trying to put it back on, the band was too loose to fasten. This was impossible. While wrist identification bands can sometimes come off, ankle bands do not come off unless someone deliberately removes them. At that time, the nurse thought, 'Someone might have swapped the baby.'

The nurse’s suspicion was confirmed the next day. On the morning of April 2, 2018, the baby underwent a blood type test. The results came out late in the afternoon. The baby was type A. The mother was type B, but the baby’s blood type was A. Ms. Kim was genetically type BB, blood type B. She could not have given birth to a baby with blood type A, which is AA or AO type. Of course, blood type tests for newborns under six months are not perfect. Due to the lack of antibody production, mismatches often occur. Even considering this possibility, the nurse could not shake off her unease.

The baby was discharged with mother Ms. Kim on April 8. Two days after discharge, the baby was registered under the surname 'HongOO,' taken from the father. The baby stayed at the maternal grandmother’s house, Ms. Seok (48), and later lived with mother Ms. Kim after she moved upstairs in January the following year. The baby passed away last summer at the age of three (Korean age). The cause of death was inability to eat and drink. The care provided by 21-year-old Ms. Kim at the time was severely lacking.

The police launched an investigation. Ms. Kim was arrested on suspicion of murder. What was expected to be the conclusion of the investigation took a new turn in March this year. The nurse’s intuition became reality. Genetic testing revealed that the baby’s biological mother was not Ms. Kim but the maternal grandmother, Ms. Seok. The babies had been swapped. The person suspected of swapping the babies was none other than Ms. Seok. The authorities concluded that she had switched her own child with her daughter’s child.

Ms. Seok denied in court that she had given birth or swapped the babies. However, the court, based on about 90 pieces of evidence including the nurse’s testimony, ruled on the 17th that Ms. Seok was the biological mother and had swapped the babies. The court specified the time of the swap as between 5:32 PM on March 31, 2018, and 8:17 AM on April 1, 2018. Regarding the motive for the crime, the court stated:

"The defendant had not had sexual relations with her husband for over 10 years until the end of January 2019, but due to a sudden pregnancy, she feared that an affair would be revealed and worried that she could not properly raise the child even if she gave birth, so she swapped the babies. It can also be seen that she swapped the babies because she wanted to keep and watch over the child she gave birth to more closely than the child her daughter gave birth to." The lie born of fear and the twisted maternal love intertwined in this crime resulted in an eight-year prison sentence.