A Texan couple says their light-skinned baby boy was taken from them at birth and swapped with a darker skin one.
They now fear their real, biological son has ended up in the hands of traffickers, who can get higher prices for light-skinned babies.
The Daily Mail reports that Richard Cushworth, who is British by birth, and his wife Mercedes Casanellas welcomed a son at a hospital in San Salvador in May this year.
They had travelled to San Salvador because Mercedes wanted her baby to be born in her home country.
Mercedes remembers being handed a pink-coloured boy, and the couple took several photographs with their son before he was taken away.
When the baby was given back, some hours later, he had darker skin.
The couple, who live in Dallas, Texas, have since had a DNA test and found that the child handed to them by hospital staff is not related to either of them.
In an emotional interview with a local TV station, Mercedes said: “We haven’t been able to sleep thinking about where he is, and who has him.”
The couple blame the obstetrician-gyneacologist, Dr Alejandro Guidos, who was arrested on Thursday.
She had tried to convince herself that the baby she was given was hers but said: “But my motherly instincts kept telling me that he wasn’t mine. I just want him to give me my baby back. I want to know that my child hasn’t been trafficked or any other crime committed against him. I need my baby, I’m just asking for my baby.”
The couple added that, if the true parents of the baby they were given are not found, they will raise him as their own.
“If they can’t find his mother, he already has parents, us. We are taking care of him and, even though we know he isn’t our biological son, we still love him.”
