Kyle Bylin and Jeremy Morrison were the only two babies born at the Unity Medical Center in Grafton, North Dakota, on January 26, 1988.
But somehow they each went home with the wrong parents.
The truth of who they are was only revealed when decades later Kyle took a chance DNA test from a kit he grabbed during a Christmas gift swap.
They are now suing Unity, saying they have been robbed of the lives they were supposed to lead.
Kyle, born Jeremy Morrison, still has the hospital bracelet misidentifying him as Kyle Bylin.
The mix-up was discovered two years ago when he took an at-home DNA test.
It led him to his biological aunt on a genealogy platform.
When her nephew, Jeremy, then had his DNA tested the truth was confirmed.
‘That’s when my mind was just completely blown,’ Kyle said.
‘We could have never imagined that it was an actual birth switch that occurred.’
Jeremy said he was convinced as soon as he saw a photo of Kyle’s brother and spotted the close similarities in their looks.
Evelyn Newton, who raised Kyle as her own, told The Associated Press: ‘Kyle is still my son — that is never going to change.
‘But I feel robbed of the life I should have had with my biological son.
‘You can’t go back and replace 35 years. First steps, driving a car, getting married — how do you make up for that?’
The hospital does not dispute the two babies were switched at some point.
It says it’s working to better understand what happened but has uncovered no evidence that its administration or staff were responsible for the lives-altering error.
‘We recognize the profound impact this discovery has had on them and their families,’ Unity Medical said in a statement.
‘Unfortunately, because of the passage of nearly four decades, the medical and staffing records that might have provided additional clarity no longer exist, and no members of the delivery team from that time are still employed by the hospital.’
The knowledge hasn’t changed the way Jeremy feels about the family he’s always known.
He still thinks of the parents he grew up with — Elizabeth O’Toole and Terry Morrison — as his parents.
And aside from some challenging times — like wishing he had a sibling to lean on when they divorced when he was seven — he says his childhood was fine.
‘I was loved. I played sports. I did well in school,’ Jeremy said. ‘A DNA test is not going to take away 38 years of memories.’
He now lives in Colorado City, Colorado, and works as a welding inspector for a wind energy company.
Had he not been switched at birth, he figures he’d still be with his biological brother and father, working on the North Dakota grain farm where Kyle grew up.
Ms Newton said she never had any thought that Kyle might not be their biological son as she and her then-husband, Keith Bylin, were raising him.
True, the immediate family had light hair and Kyle’s was dark.
But her husband had relatives with dark hair, and Ms Newton herself was adopted, so she didn’t know what her own blood relatives looked like.
For Kyle, questions about nature versus nurture have become more personal.
As he pursued an academic career far from North Dakota, he figured the political debates over Thanksgiving dinner were just a staple of American family life.
‘You’re just kind of shaking your fist, like, how can this be my family? How am I so different from them?’ Kyle said.
‘It turns out that we’re just totally different people, period.’
Kyle and Jeremy have now met their biological parents — the encounters were welcoming but awkward, they said.
They have yet to meet each other, but have spoken on the phone.
‘We’ve tried to unite as a group and just recognize that no matter what, there’s different ways that this can be socially messy,’ Kyle said.
‘Everyone’s getting to know people that they didn’t know before.’
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