It all began on June 29, 1995. Paula Johnson gave birth to a baby girl named Callie at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville. The following day, Kevin Chittum and Whitney welcomed their daughter, Rebecca into the world.
However, when Callie was 3 years old, Paula's boyfriend wanted a paternity test. The DNA test would provide results neither parent expected. Callie was not biologically Paula's daughter.
Paula discovered that Callie and Rebecca were switched at birth. To make matters more complicated, when the hospital set out to notify Kevin and Whitney, they were discovered to have died just hours before in a car accident along with four other relatives.
The parents would never know Rebecca was not their biological daughter. Callie would never get to meet them.
“The big question everyone always asks me is ‘Would you prefer your parents still be alive or passed?'” Callie Johnson said in a 2013 interview. "I don't know what I'm missing, so in a sense, I do feel more sorry for Rebecca, because she doesn't know her biological mom."
When Paula tried to obtain custody of Rebecca, Kevin and Whitney's family fought back and retained custody of her. After three years in court, the judge ruled the girls would stay with the families who raised them, allowing for visitation. However, tensions continued to rise between the two parties. Eventually, the girls were old enough to decide for themselves.
Paula settled with the hospital for $1.25 million. The lawsuit fundamentally changed hospital protocol to create modern safeguards to prevent babies from leaving with the wrong family. While Paula is still angry that she never got to meet her birth daughter, she has no regrets about raising Callie.
"I've always taught her from day one they are her parents, you know. She was born in Whitney's belly and she was born in my heart," Paula says.
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