Couple reunited with their biological son who was swapped at birth.

“I need my baby, I’m just asking for my baby.”

UPDATE: UK couple Richard Cushworth and Mercedes Casanellas have reportedly been reunited with their biological son.

According to The Daily Mail, the exchange of the children took place in the sixth floor office of the Prosecutor General, in Santa Elena, San Salvador.

Mr Cushworth took to Facebook to share his relief that the ‘ordeal’ was over. “There are no words to express what our heart feels to have our baby at home! Thanks to all who joined our pain and fed our hope,” he said.

While the family are no longer operating under an order of silence, they are said to be somewhat restricted in the information they can share at this stage.

“Thank God our family this gathered,” said Cushworth. “For the moment we are not allowed to upload photos but soon we’ll give them more details of the outcome of this miracle.”

Mamamia previously reported…

For British couple Richard Cushworth and his wife Mercedes Casanellas, the birth of their son was a stressful affair.

The couple, who work in San Salvador had booked into what they believe was the finest hospital El Salvador could offer.

But when Richard Cushworth had to go away for work for a month, Mercedes, or Mercy as she is known, was shocked to be told by her obstetrician that she had to have her baby that day – five weeks premature without her husband by her side.

Mercy Casanellas, a missionary working in a huge church in San Salvador, gave birth on May 21st this year to her son, Jacob.

Images taken from the birth show her nestled up to her tiny newborn – a light skinned elfin boy.

The Telegraph reports her as saying, “I was very stressed at first because the baby took a while to start breathing, but then I held him and remember thinking that he looked like my husband.

“He was very white and had similar features. I remember seeing his genitals and thinking that they were white and pinkish.

“But then the anesthetist came and told me that I was very nervous and that they were going to give me something to put me to sleep. After that I don’t remember anything, until I woke up the next morning.

She told The Daily Mail, “I saw my son at 9:30pm when he was born, and then they put me to sleep. In the morning, around 8am, they brought in everyone’s baby, but they never brought mine.”

“I told them ‘Where is my baby? Where is my son?’ but they just told me: ‘He is coming, he is coming.”

“They brought him at lunch time, and I asked them ‘why is this baby different?’ He has darker skin, his facial features were different, his nose, his eyebrows.

“They told me that it was because he was a newborn and that he was swollen and that he would change.

“They said his skin would get lighter and that the swelling would go down. They said everything was ok, so I believed them.”

As the young family prepared to move to Dallas in the US to continue the next stage of their lives, Mercy kept returning to the sinister feeling that something was not right.

“My family started to make comments, they kept saying ‘this baby has darker skin’, and ‘he doesn’t look like your husband and he doesn’t look like you’ for the next two months.”

She says she berated herself for entertaining the notion.

“I thought, ‘How could I even think that this is not my child?’ But the thoughts were always on my mind, and finally I made the decision to do a DNA test because I didn’t want to have these thoughts hanging over me as I went to study for my Masters.”

The result, conducted by two experts in the US showed conclusively that the baby she was breastfeeding, nurturing, loving was not her son.

The tests showed there was zero percent chance Jacob was either her or Richard’s son.

The couple now believe they were victims of child traffickers – and they believe that her obstetrician orchestrated the whole thing.

Dr Alejandro Reyes Guidos has now been arrested.

The Daily Mail reports that Mercy told prosecutors on several occasions that she asked Dr Guidos if the baby would be white, to which he responded, “No, because Latin genes are stronger.”

The report said that when she first changed her son four days after his birth, she noticed that his testicles were very dark, unlike how she had remembered.

She also claims that her baby was bald, whereas this baby had “an abundance of black hair.”

In an interview with local media Richard Cushworth said, “We just want them to give us our son back.”

“I have a child and I don’t know where he is.”

The parents of the four baby boys born in the hospital at the same time have agreed to undergo DNA tests with the results expected back in the next day or so.

The Attorney General of El Salvador has now ordered a criminal investigation into the baby’s disappearance with claims that a trafficking gang, led by Dr Guido, had been operating inside the hospital.

Ms Casanellas broke down on local television, “I want to know that my child hasn’t been trafficked or any other crime committed against him. I need my baby, I’m just asking for my baby.”

For the couple the search for their son is excruciating, but they say they love the baby they have and would happily keep both infants should their biological son be found. Mercy said she breastfeeds Jacob as though he is her own.

“If they can’t find his mother, he already has parents, us. We are taking care of him and, even though we know he isn’t our biological son, we still love him.”

We will keep you updated on developments in this heartbreaking story.

For more:

21 years ago, 2 baby girls were switched at birth. Their families were just awarded a massive payout.
She was stolen as a baby 17 years ago. And her parents have just found her.