‘They swapped me in the maternity ward, I spent 5 days with a family that isn’t mine’: The incredible fate of Ognjen from Šabac: ‘We were born on the same day
Miloš and I were born on the same day, in the same maternity ward. We both weighed 3,300 grams at birth. We lay cot next to cot. I was the first to leave the hospital, but with – his parents! He stayed with my mum! No one suspected a thing, until fate intervened...
Life really does write novels, and some of them are stranger than any fiction. Such is the story of Ognjen Stamenić (19) from Šabac, who was switched at birth through a mistake by the medical staff. He spent the first five days of his life with a family to whom he did not belong.
“Everything started even before my mother gave birth. A few days earlier, as she later told me, for some reason she was intensely thinking about babies being swapped. People talked a lot about it at the time. There had been various cases, both here and around the world. She was afraid of it, but still tried not to attach too much importance to it,” Ognjen begins his story for Kurir.
When the day of the birth came, there was no more room for such thoughts. The labour was difficult. It lasted as long as 15 hours, so for the safety of both mother and baby, a caesarean section was performed.
Ognjen was born on 28 August 2006 at 9.45 a.m.
On the same day, at 11.10 a.m., Dragana from the area around Šabac gave birth to a son naturally.
The boys were almost identical - the same weight and length, differing only by one centimetre in head circumference.
“One day the midwives were bathing us and removed the bands with the details that were around our waists. Whether they got caught up in conversation or something else was the matter, at any rate, they switched those bands on us,” Ognjen says.
The identification wristbands remained on their little arms, but evidently no one checked whether the details matched those on the waistbands.
Since Dragana had given birth naturally, she left the hospital before Ognjen’s mother – and took Ognjen home with her. His mother, while recovering from the operation, was being brought the other baby – Miloš – for feeding.
“To the ‘parents’ I left with, I was their first ‘child’. They cared for me lovingly, believing I was theirs,” says Ognjen.
The turning point came when the baby in the maternity ward developed elevated bilirubin levels (physiological jaundice), so a blood test was carried out in neonatology, and the results did not match the sample taken from the umbilical cord. One doctor noticed that the details on the identification wristband and the band across the stomach did not match. The alarm was raised.
The very next day, both families were informed.
“My mother was completely stunned. She could not believe what was happening. But she remained composed and determined that everything should be clarified. DNA testing was done and the truth was discovered very quickly.”
The media wrote extensively about this unusual event. The police were informed as well. On the same day, inspectors and an investigating judge came to the hospital.
However, the parents never filed a lawsuit.
This unusual fate briefly brought the two families closer together – they visited each other and spent time together, but the years and the paths their lives took later separated them.
Ognjen learned the truth only when he had grown up.
“I was not indifferent. I was watching the series Fate’s Game and thinking how everything could have been different. One day the landline rang. Some woman answered and said: ‘Hello, Ognjen, I’m your grandmother.’ I did not recognise the voice. A chill went through me. I thought: ‘Well, now I’m going to find out that I really did grow up in the wrong family.’ And then she added: ‘The one with whom you spent five days when they swapped you.’ I breathed a sigh of relief. She only wanted to hear how we were.”
That “grandmother” also told him she would like him to meet Miloš. They became friends on Facebook, but they never met in person.
“I know he went to secondary school in Šabac, and yet our paths never crossed. Sometimes that seems almost unbelievable to me. I would like to meet him, fate brought us together in the strangest possible way,” says Ognjen, stressing that there is neither anger nor bitterness in him, only curiosity and quiet gratitude that the truth came out in time.
And yet, some questions keep forcing themselves upon him.
“I often ask myself what would have happened if the mistake had never been discovered. Who would I be today? Who would he be? Perhaps we would both have grown up convinced that we were living our own lives, while in fact we would have carried someone else’s name, someone else’s fate. And that is why I cannot help wondering – how many more fates like this may have remained mixed up for ever, without anyone ever knowing,” he says.
"We were very attached to you"
When Ognjen shared his story on social media, a surprise followed. That same day, Miloš’s father sent him a message:
“My boy, I watched your video. It deeply moved me, because I know what we were going through then. We were very attached to you, and we care very much for your parents. Send them all our regards.”
Along with the message, he sent a photograph showing baby Miloš and baby Ognjen sitting on his lap – a quiet reminder of the five days the families will never forget.
The mothers suspected nothing
Neither Duška, Ognjen’s mother, nor Dragana, Miloš’s mother, as the media wrote back in 2006, suspected for a single moment that something strange was happening. When the doctors told them of their suspicions, both burst into tears.
“The only thing I noticed was that the baby was refusing to feed. I did not attach any importance to it. I thought it was temporary. Even when they told me the baby had been switched, I still could not believe it straight away,” Duška said at the time.
Dragana was likewise convinced that she had brought her own child home.
“No one noticed anything. My husband’s father even said that the baby was the spitting image of his grandfather.”