Two babies’ families were reportedly switched at birth in a National Health Service hospital in 1967 are now online for compensation in the first case of this type.

The girls, Now adult women named in reports only as Claire and Jessica, were switched at an NHS West Midlands hospital shortly after birth. but their families did not discover the error until 55 years later, according to the BBC.

The truth was discovered only after the brother of one of the women took a DNA test in 2021, which included another woman as his full sister.

He contacted the woman and quickly realized that she had been another girl born at the same hospital around the same time.

Incidents of babies being switched at birth are extremely rare. A freedom of information request in 2017 revealed that there had been no recorded cases of babies being sent home to the wrong family.

According to the BBC, since the 1980s, newborns have been fitted with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags immediately after birth, allowing their location to be tracked.

In 1967, the mother of one of the women, called only Joan, was admitted to West Midlands Hospital due to high blood pressure and was induced. Their daughter was born that same afternoon and they took her to a daycare so Joan could rest.

Shortly after midnight, another baby girl was born and the next morning Joan was given a baby who was not her biological child.

More than five decades later, the couple has reunited. Upon meeting her daughter, Joan said, “It just felt good.”

“I thought he looked just like I did in my youth,” he added.

The woman who is Joan’s biolocal daughter, named Claire in reports, said she felt like she never belonged in her own family.

“I felt like an impostor… There were no similarities, neither in appearance nor in features. I thought, ‘yes, I’m adopted,'” she said.

According to the BBC, Joan’s estranged daughter now calls her “mum,” but the daughter who grew up with her no longer does.

“I don’t care that Jessica is not my biological daughter,” he said. “She is still my daughter and always will be.”

The NHS trust that oversees the hospital has admitted liability but the level of compensation has not yet been agreed.

NHS Resolution, which deals with complaints against the NHS, told the bbc the change was an “egregious mistake” and that he had accepted legal responsibility.

He told the BBC that this was a “unique and complex case” and that he was still working to agree the amount of compensation due.