Oregon Newborns Switched at Birth Meet 56 Years Later

In a turn of events that seemed more Hollywood than Heppner, Oregon, two girls that were accidentally switched at birth in 1953 have recently met. The two girls, born at Pioneer Memorial Hospital in eastern Oregon, lived their entire lives without knowing of the incident until the suspicions of a former neighbor came to light. Kay Rene Reed Qualls and DeeAnn Angell Shafer had their identities shattered – sort of – when they found out last summer and the story is making the rounds of late.

The former neighbor, an 86-year-old woman who knew Qualls’ mother and had lived next door to the Angell family, called Bobby Reed Qualls, Kay Rene’s brother, and voiced her suspicions that the two had been improperly switched. The two women, now 56 years old, met last summer and had DNA tests run to confirm that, in fact, they had lived their lives with the "wrong" families. The old neighbor, who refused to be identified by name, told Bobby Reed Qualls that Marjorie Angell had noted in 1953 that she had been handed the wrong newborn after nurses took her baby to bathe it.

When the old woman showed Bobby Reed a photo, he said, "It looked like Kay Rene in about 7th or 8th grade." It wasn’t Kay Rene, however, but DeeAnn Shafer’s sister. Insisted the old neighbor, "Kay Rene is not a Reed. DeeAnn is a Reed." The two women were justifiably shaken by the news, but put on a brave face. Said Shafer, "I cried. I wanted to be a Reed – my life wasn’t my life." She then went on to say, "I’m trying to move forward to look at the positive. You can’t look back. It just drives you crazy."