A Brazilian couple are devastated after learning that a case of mistaken identity has meant that two children were swapped about birth 38 years ago.
The couple, who had raised the child of a complete stranger, were only alerted to their mistake recently when their son went for a DNA test.
Back in 1980, Radigena and Geraldo Gaspar went home from the hospital with a baby that they thought was their son, Romualdo.
However, as he grew up he started to look vastly different from everyone else in the family, which lead to Romualdo taking a DNA test in order to put an end to the gossip that had circled around him for his entire life.
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Instead of doing that, it brought to light a shocking truth that had evaded the family for nearly 40 years.
Romualdo said: "There were always malicious comments. The family tried to ignore them because we didn't need to prove anything.
"Then I said, 'Let's do the test then, to prove it and put a stop to them [the rumours]'."
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After the results proved that he was not a biological member of the family, they set out to find out what exactly had happened all of those years back.
They consulted the records at the Monsenhor Genesio Hospital in Juruaia, southeast Brazil, and found that there were two boys born at the hospital within a close period of time.
Once a photo was found for one of them, called Noel, they were convinced that the child was their biological son.
Sadly, they found out that Noel had tragically died aged one, but they didn't realise that Romualdo's biological sister would come looking for him after hearing of the story.
Nelma Rezende and her husband eventually tracked them down through a local registry office.
Her husband Caio said he found a photo that was too similar to his wife to be true.
Caio said: "At that moment I had no doubt that he was my wife's brother,"
After another DNA test, the results confirmed that Romualdo was the son of Nelda's parents.
His biological mum, Valdevina, said: "After 38 years, at first I thought this was all a joke.
"But over time the penny dropped, that it was all true."
Romualdo said: "For me, this has no price. No money could buy the happiness that I feel at the moment."
As for the hospital, who are thought to have made the cock-up in the first place, they have said that they have no comment to make on the issue.
Featured Image Credit: EPTVTopics: Children, World News, News, son, Hospital, Weird, Brazil