MovieChat Forums > Switched at Birth (1991) Discussion > The Heart Problem

The Heart Problem

posted 19 years ago by AtherWorld
4 replies | jump to latest

What I always found interesting was that the Twiggs had a baby with a bad heart. So, Arelna having a heart problem wasn't that unusual, as they were told it could hapen. But since the babies were switched, it means Arlena didn't, but Kimberly did. What are the chances that a family with a history of a heart birth defect had a healthy kid, but a random stranger, who's kid was born just days apart did have the same exact condition? Seems mighty strange,a nd highly coincidental. I know the DNA testing they did is virtually never wrong, but there's a very small margin of error, and this heart defect problem happened so close together (they lived relativley close to each other, since they went to the same hospital, was it something in the water? ), I've always wondered if the girls were ever truly switched. Maybe it was the meds messing up, or a simple error in blood typing. With today's advances in genetic testing, the reuslts would be more accurate, if slightly. Or esle one of the biggest coincidences happened. Two relatively nearby fmailies both ahd babies (at different times) with the same heart defect.

Course, this would then screw up poor Kimberly even more, to finally learn she was never swicthed after all. It's just two fmailies, at the same hospital, with kids at the same time both having the same heart defect problem (within several years apart), seems kinda high probability. Too high, if you aks me.

Thoughts?

[–] AND77 19 years ago

They were definitely switched. What the Twiggs were actually told was that, because they had one baby with this heart defect (which, I believe, is not genetic), the chances of having another baby with it was practically non-existent.
You're exactly right that it IS a bizarre coincidence that the other baby was born with this defect, but I think it genuinely was a coincidence. When DNA testing was done, both Mr. and Mrs. Twigg were proven to be the biological parents of Kimberly Mayes. They also proved that Bob Mayes could not possibly be the biological father of Kimberly. I can see DNA testing screwing up once, but not on all 3 parents.
When I saw real-life pictures of Kimberly and Regina Twigg (her biological mother), I saw instantly that they were related; they're practically twins (obviously, this is not conclusive, but they look creepily alike). Bob Mayes has also stated that, when he saw the pictures of Arlena, he knew the Twiggs were right.

[–] abdool3 19 years ago

Well this is a true story. Regina's daughter Vivia died at just a few weeks old of a heart condition and when Regina got pregnant again with Arleana, she was determind to find an excelent doctor. Earnest and Regina went to Hardee Mmorial because they were told Dr. Black was a good doctor. What they never knew was that Velma and Merle Coker were prominent citizens of the town and they were well known at Hardee Memorial.Their daughter Barbara had been trying for 10 years and finally in 1978 she concieved and delievered a baby. Babara knew her baby was born with heart disease because when Regina stopped into her room to say hello, she found Barbara crying. When aasked what she'd had, Barbara just said, "a girl" and nothing else. The nurse rushed Regina away and whispered that it was a sad situation. Anyway, in Kimberly's baby book, Barbara had written that Kimberly's hair was brown, then she crossed it off and wrote blonde. In reality Barbaras baby had brown blonde hair , while Regina's baby had blonde hair; therefore after the switch was made, Barbara altered the information in the baby book. The theory is that the doctor and nurses switched the babies because Regina already had a lot of kids, where as Barbara had been trying for so long and now had a sick baby.

[–] Timberwolf_1019 19 years ago

So the fact that my baby book had brown eyes written in and then later my mom wrote that I actually had blue eyes, does this mean that my mom is guilty of something. You have no proof on this and to accuse Barbara Mays of something when you don't even know her, and the fact that she is passed on and has no chance to even defend herself is just plain crazy. You don't know what really happened and quite honestly I don't think that no one will ever know, because it was such a long time ago, and also who is being helped by this. It is only bringing more pain and heartache on everyone. Kimberly thinks of Barbara as her mother also, and it almost seems like everytime people are attacking Bob and Barbara Mays they are attacking Kimberly's parents and that hurts her and makes her very angry and upset.

[–] dimangurl16 18 years ago

I think you are wrong about the DNA and stuff like that. Okay let's get this straight you think that a perfectly health couple cannot have a sick baby that is not true. Even though it is genetics that is accounted for heart disease like Arlena (Kimberly) had. I am saying this because my mother and my biological father had me a girl with congenital heart disease (which means present at birth; not genetic). So Kimberly (Arlena) could have had a heart defect just as well as Arlena (Kimberly).