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Jim McFadzean Reporting
It's a riveting tale of two expectant mothers who checked into the KHMH last week. One expecting a baby boy, while the other-a baby girl. At the end of their stay, an unlikely switch of the two newborns has not only triggered a ….but the incident could possibly ..become…costs Belize's …hospital .

27 year old Najat Zuniga was one of two women who checked into the KHMH last Monday, April 18th scheduled for C-Section delivery that following morning. Like the other woman, she had undergone an ultra-sound to determine the gender of her child, and so it was no surprise when the delivering doctor announced to her that she had delivered a baby girl.

Najat Zuniga
"Exactly 20 past 8 my child got delivered and it was a little girl."

Jim McFadzean
"So you were awake at the delivery that you delivered a girl?"

Najat Zuniga
"I was awake, I wasn't asleep. So while I was awake they told me 'Ms. Zuniga you had a little girl' I said thank you Lord Jesus because everybody knows that I wanted a little girl and I was prepared and expected for this little girl because I had already had two sons and when they told me that I was the happiest person on this earth."

But barely an hour after that joyful announcement, Zuniga got some shocking news.

Najat Zuniga
"The nurse came to me and said 'Ms. Zuniga, are you sure that you had a little girl' I tell her that of course i am sure that it's a girl. She says well you didn't have a little girl - you had a little boy. The nurse brings him and that was then I became aware that that was a little boy. I am a very determine person and I know what I see."

And while she was convinced the hospital had screwed-up terribly, her family had already been persuaded by KHMH staff that the birth of a boy was indeed something to celebrate, and that she Najat Zuniga was probably suffering the immediate effects of postpartum depression.

Najat Zuniga
"Everybody is watching me like I am crazy now in the hospital and they think that I am going through a depression because I was already expecting a little girl and now I am having a little boy and now my sister and everybody came and everybody was around my bed telling me that 'thank God that you had a little boy' 'you have to stop that' I was there arguing telling them that I did not have a boy, I had a girl."

Unlike the other woman who underwent surgery totally anesthetized, Zuniga chose a popular form of anesthesia known as epidural anesthesia, a steroid injection for pain relief during caesarian sections. That decision probably averted the…of both women going home with the wrong baby.

Najat Zuniga
"Before I went in that surgery that morning I prayed and I ask God to guide me through. I have to thank God for that for making me get my daughter because I wasn't asleep. Sophie (the other baby mother) didn't know anything. When she came out of surgery and they were telling her about it - she was like no, I was supposed to have a little boy, but they didn't tell she anything because she was asleep, now if it wasn't for me never asleep? I was fully awake, what could have happen?"

Jim McFadzean
"Do you believe the hospital owes you besides a apology letter some sort of compensation?"

Najat Zuniga
Exactly, my family went to them and Sophie family the same. I have told them that that need to at least give a compensation for that because to me that's past the mark now, because maybe it could be more than one child that has happen to now. People need now to be safe and not be afraid to go in and have their baby at Karl Heusner."

Compensation from the hospital might be wishful thinking on the part of Zuniga. An apology from the hospital is the most likely for what both women described as insensitive treatment on the part of KHMH staff who for the most part downplayed the switching incident.

Najat Zuniga
"This is very serious. To them it might seems 'oh that's nothing, the point is you guys got your baby' because that was one of the doctors smart remarks that 'I don't know what is the big issue about it, because the point is that you got your child, we would have found that out because it is right there on the chart' if it is right there on the chart so how come you are still pointing to us that i got the wrong child."

"The hospital weary of possible litigation coming out of this latest incident has turned down our request for an interview, opting instead for a carefully worded press release"

The release issued late this afternoon, states, and I quote: "The Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital Administration regrets any inconveniences caused and apologizes to both families that were involved in the 'switched babies incident". The release goes on to say that, In the first case, the mother was properly introduced to her newborn immediately after the procedure. However, shortly after, the second infant was mistakenly presented to the same mother. Throughout their stay, the release continues, "both mothers and their infants were managed professionally and afforded every courtesy."

"Because the hospital has chosen not to grant us an interview, some key questions into why such a screw-up occurred will most likely go unanswered", Reporting for Seven News, I'm Jim McFadzean.

We also spoke to the mother of the other child who told us that the hospital has also offered her no apologies. She said that she observed that after the incident the medical staff treated her differently, not giving her pain killers on schedule.