Separated Twins Remain Apart

The guardians of twin girls accidentally separated at birth in a Thai hospital have agreed that, 16 years after one was swapped for a different baby, all three girls should stay with the parents who brought them up.

Alisa, Lalita and Sun were all born at Bangkok's Hua Chiew hospital on October 29 1986. Sun, Alisa's twin, was taken home by Lalita's mother; Lalita was taken home by Alisa and Sun's mother and brought up as Alisa's twin, according to reports in the newspaper Thai Rath.

It said the switch, which probably occurred by mistake in the hospital, came to light when a friend of the "twins'" parents saw Sun during a visit to a school and was struck by the resemblance to Alisa.

When the children and their parents met on Wednesday, they discovered that the girls were all born on the same day in the same hospital.

The two families were then faced with unravelling the children's tangled lives.

The twins' mother, Supasana Pornprakhun, 50, was quoted as saying that everyone involved was in shock, particularly Lalita, who worried that she might be sent away to live with her biological parents.

Ms Supasana apparently wanted her real daughter back but didn't want to surrender Lalita, whom she loves dearly.

Viroj Sethin, the director of the Hua Chiew hospital, said a tag is usually attached to a newborn baby's ankle, on which is written the mother's name, before it is taken to the infant care room.

"Human error can happen everywhere no matter how good the system," he said.