A Russian woman has tracked down the baby she lost when it swapped at birth 30 years ago with another child and was raised in appalling poverty by an alcoholic mother and a murderer father.
Zoya Tuganova, now 70, took home the wrong child from a maternity hospital in Chelyabinsk in 1987, but the mistake was only discovered this year.
The child who Zoya was mistakenly given at the hospital – called Katya – agreed to investigate her mother’s claim that she might not be her parents’ biological baby.
Compensated: Zoya Tuganova, now 70, took home the wrong child from a maternity hospital in Chelyabinsk in 1987, and has now been awarded £13,200 from the state
Swapped at birth: Due to a hospital blunder Zoya’s biological daughter Luciya, left, was send home with another woman, and she took home another girl, Katya, right
She mounted her own investigation and found Luciya – born like Katya by caesarean in the same maternity hospital on January, 29, 1987 – now a mother of three living in grinding poverty.
Mrs Tuganova then launched a complaint against the hospital, demanding compensation of 10 million Russian ruble – some £132,000.
However, a court this week ruled she should be given one million ruble, just £13,200 in compensation.
This despite the fact that the swap triggered a chain of events that led to murder.
When Zoya tracked down her biological daughter, Luciya told how her father had immediately believed the new child was not his and accused her mother Elvira Tuligenova of infidelity.
True love: Katya, pictured with Zoya, agreed to investigate her mother’s claim that she might not be her parents’ biological baby
Reunited: Zoya Tuganova, 70, on her first meeting with her real daughter Luciya, 30, and one of her grandchildren
Back in the days: Zoya Tuganova with her husband in the 1980s
Zoya said of her biological daughter’s father: ‘He beat up Elvira suspecting that she had not been loyal to him.’
Later, obsessed with feelings his wife had been unfaithful, and believing – wrongly – he knew the identity of his wife’s presumed ethnic Russian lover, ‘he killed a fellow villager’, for which he was jailed, Zoya said.
The stress of her husband’s false accusations and murder, along with gossip from neighbours, plunged Elvira into despair and she began drinking heavily becoming helplessly alcoholic. She has since died.
‘Luciya’s mother drank a lot, so the children – there were two more in the family apart from Luciya – were on their own,’ said Zoya.’Often they wandered around the village begging for food.’
‘With the father in jail, the mother Elvira – now dead – incapable of caring for her children, Luciya and her siblings were put into a grim orphanage,’ reportedThe Siberian Times, in its revealing birth-swap story.
A shellshocked Zoya, now living in the Urals city of Magnitogorsk, said she ‘noticed the resemblance’ as soon as she saw Luciya, who had been raised by her Bashkir family as a Muslim.
Zoya found Luciya – born like Katya by caesarean in the same maternity hospital on January, 29, 1987 – now a mother of three living in grinding poverty
Katya – the biological child of the Bashkir family – had enjoyed a first-class education, going to university, before following her mother into a managerial job with Russian Railways
‘My children are well-built while Katya is fragile,’ she said. ‘But Luciya is well-built … and has three children. She’s not working.She has a husband – but he doesn’t have a regular job.
‘My Katya is Orthodox, while Luciya is Muslim, and quite a believer. I couldn’t meet Elvira, because she had died.’
Zoya is now trying to build a relationship with the daughter she remembers only fleetingly from the few minutes they shared together after her caesarean.
‘The poverty is, of course, terrible,’ said Zoya, who said Luciya lives in a tumbledown house, depending on state handouts to raise her children. ‘Luciya is very quiet, and humble.’
In contrast, Katya – the biological child of the Bashkir family – had enjoyed a first-class education, going to university, before following her mother into a managerial job with Russian Railways.
Katya had serious medical problems as a child, but Zoya ensured she was treated by the best doctors, and had holidays in the mountains to help her health.
Katya volunteered to track down Luciya after seeing her mother’s ‘suffering’
‘Luciya was very healthy at birth, but because she has had such a hard life, she got disabled, and couldn’t get a good education,’ said Zoya.
Katya told her mother that if she had been raised by her biological parents ‘I’d have died long ago’.
Zoya said that while she suspected a swap when she was at the maternity hospital, the strict Soviet doctors refused to countenance that such a mistake could have been made.
She was threatened with being branded mentally ill which would have jeopardised her prestigious job.
‘I was screaming, I was swearing, but the doctors repeated that I was deluded and threatened me with a psychiatric analysis,’ she said.
‘Of course I consider Katya my own daughter but the thought of finding out about my other daughter, also adult, never left me. Life was making my doubts only stronger.’
Katya volunteered to track down Luciya after seeing her mother’s ‘suffering’ over not knowing what happened to her biological daughter.
Now Zoya and Katya are planning to sue the authorities over the swap.
‘Someone has to be responsible for swapping the children,’ said Zoya. ‘I believe this is a real crime.
‘I remember the family name of the obstetrician…so I hope those who are guilty will be held liable.’
Katya said: ‘Moral compensation for what happened should be paid to my mum and Luciya. Thank God, I am fine.’