Couple Sues Over Newborn Baby Mix-up

Evanston, ILL - The day after her son was born, Jennifer Spiegel was awakened about 4 a.m. in her Evanston Hospital room and told by a staffer, "Your baby wants you."

A patient-care technician then wheeled a newborn in and handed him to Spiegel, who breast-fed him.

But it wasn't her son, according to a lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court.

A surprised nurse walked in while Spiegel was breast-feeding the boy and realized the mix-up, the Spiegels told the Chicago Sun-Times.

"The nurse saw Jennifer and looked very surprised. She told us ... 'I was just with your baby in the nursery,' " said Jennifer's husband, Scott, who was in the room at the time.

"She said, 'The baby you're feeding isn't yours,' " Jennifer Spiegel, 33, recalled. "It was just an awful, internal feeling."

The alleged mix-up in January 2008 is detailed in the negligence lawsuit the Spiegels filed against Evanston Hospital and its corporate umbrella, NorthShore University HealthSystem.

Jennifer Spiegel says her obstetrician told her there was only a slim chance of the baby or her passing each other a disease or virus.

And while no one was injured or sickened, the Chicago couple says the hospital should be held responsible for the mix-up. They are seeking at least $30,000 in damages.

"And we hope this doesn't happen to anyone else," said Jennifer Spiegel, a teacher.

Amy Ferguson, spokeswoman for NorthShore University HealthSystem, said the corporate office had not been notified of the lawsuit and had no comment.

Lawrence Gartner, the former head of pediatrics at the University of Chicago, called the alleged mix-up rare. But he said it would be unusual if it affected the mother-child bond.

"In animals, they're often very specific -- mothers will only accept their own babies, but I don't know that humans have any such characteristic," said Gartner, who works with the La Leche League, a worldwide breast-feeding support organization.

Certainly, wet nurses have been around for centuries, and just last year, actress Salma Hayek famously breast-fed another woman's newborn on a goodwill mission to Sierra Leone.

But Jennifer Spiegel, a first-time mother, didn't sign up to feed another woman's child, the lawsuit says.

In fact, she can't imagine how such a mix-up could happen.

That's because mother, father and son were outfitted with matching bracelets containing the same identification number, she said. In her suit, Jennifer Spiegel says hospital policy calls for employees to match the ID bracelets every time they take a baby into a mother's hospital room.

The Spiegels say that's what they thought happened in the dark room that night.

"There are safeguards, [so] there's no good reason for this to happen," Jennifer Spiegel said.

The Spiegels said they all got their bracelets on Jan. 25, 2008 -- the day young Logan was born.

It was about 4 a.m. the next day, when Jennifer Spiegel remembers waking up to the hospital staffer saying, "Your baby wants you."

Jennifer Spiegel said after breast-feeding the boy and then being told of the mix-up, she was exhausted and worried. She wondered, "Was he with someone else? Where is he?"

Scott Spiegel, 33, an attorney who is handling the lawsuit, recalled: "I asked the nurse to take me to him right away."

The other child was returned to the nursery, and little Logan was brought to his parents' room -- where he remained until they returned to the family's Chicago home, the Spiegels said.

The couple, who declined to be photographed for this story, also declined to discuss whether they met the parents of the boy mistakenly brought to their room.

The Spiegels said they didn't notice they had the wrong baby because he was swaddled up to his chin and wearing a cap -- and it was the middle of the night.

"I couldn't see his hair," Jennifer Spiegel said.

The patient-care technician offered a tearful apology, which they accepted, Scott Spiegel said.

"But it's not enough," he added.