Austrian Women Reunite 35 Years After Being Switched at Birth

Fri Oct 17 2025 01:28:38 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

Doris Grünwald and Jessica Baumgartner, two Austrian women switched at birth, meet for the first time after realizing their true identities decades later.

Doris Grünwald and Jessica Baumgartner, born prematurely in a Graz hospital in 1990, were accidentally swapped at birth. Their reunion, 35 years later, brings clarity amidst emotional complications after both discovered they were not biologically related to their parents. This heartwarming story explores their experiences and the implications of their switched identities.

Two Austrian women, who were switched at birth at a hospital in the southern city of Graz, have finally met each other 35 years later.

Doris Grünwald and Jessica Baumgartner were born at the LKH-Uniklinikum in Graz in October 1990, according to Austrian reports. Both were premature. Shortly after they were born, the two babies were accidentally switched and were given to the parents of the other family.

Then in 2012, Ms. Grünwald discovered that she was not the biological daughter of her parents, Evelin and Josef, when she donated blood and realized her blood type did not match with that of her mother.

Austrian public broadcaster ORF reported on the case in 2016, but back then the other family could not be found. Ms. Baumgartner was brought up not far away by Herbert and Monika Derler, according to ORF's Thema TV programme. She discovered her blood type didn't match that of her parents when she became pregnant, and a doctor informed her about the case of the switched babies.

Jessica got in touch with Doris via Facebook and they then met up. She told the programme it was like meeting a sister. We got along right away, Doris said. It was an indescribably good feeling. Recently, the families finally met up too, filmed by an ORF TV crew.

Mrs. Derler expressed her emotional reaction upon hearing the news, noting, Jessica will always be our child. And when I saw Doris, I thought she is such a sweetheart. Meanwhile, Evelin Grünwald reflected, For me, my family has just got bigger and I finally have certainty, while her husband noted the experience was a relief.

The operations manager at the LKH-Uniklinikum, Gebhard Falzberger, publicly apologized to both families, expressing deep regret over the mistake that occurred at the time. Subsequently, in 2016, the Grünwald family consulted a lawyer who advised them to adopt Doris to ensure her inheritance rights, securing compensation from the hospital as part of their legal actions.

The Derlers are now also pursuing adoption and compensation. Jessica has acknowledged mixed feelings about the reunited families, acknowledging the emotional weight of the reunion as enormous, characterized by both beautiful moments and painful reflections.