Thi Ngoc Yen and Vu Ngoc Lan Anh are the two girls involved in the unusual case of a hospital switching babies in Binh Phuoc in 2016 that caused a stir in public opinion. After nearly 10 years, the two girls have a loving ending with the same family.
Sisters Ngoc Yen (left) and Lan Anh are now as close as real sisters - Photo: AN VI
This strange case of mistaken baby exchange happened in 2013, when Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Trang (Lan Anh's biological mother) and Ms. Thi Lien (Ngoc Yen's biological mother) gave birth in the same room at Binh Long Town General Hospital, Binh Phuoc Province.
Mr. VU DINH KHIEN
The case of the wrong baby in Binh Phuoc caused a stir nationwide.
Trang and Lien gave birth 15 minutes apart. When the hospital mistakenly gave Ngoc Yen away for nine months, Vu Dinh Khien (Trang's husband) became suspicious because he did not see any resemblance to his parents. He then quit his job and went looking for the woman who gave birth in the same room as his wife.
It was not until 2016 that Trang's biological father, while selling bread in the neighboring hamlet, suddenly saw Lien holding a baby girl who looked very much like Khien, so he became suspicious and brought the whole family in to see.
Mr. Khien did a DNA test and discovered that Ngoc Yen was not related by blood. After receiving the complaint, Binh Long General Hospital took the two children for a DNA test and the results showed that they were cross-related.
On July 25, 2016, two girls were returned to their biological parents after three years of being mistakenly given away in Binh Phuoc. Ngoc Yen was returned to her mother Lien, and Lan Anh was returned to her parents, Khien and Trang. But then, as fate would have it, the two girls returned to the same family...
Two children grow up together
In front of the small house of a family of five, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Trang (35 years old, Lan Anh's biological mother) is busy scraping cashew nuts to earn a living before her wedding invites her to sing. Meanwhile, the two sisters Ngoc Yen and Lan Anh are diligently studying at their desks.
At first glance, it's easy to mistake Ngoc Yen for the older sister because she's much chubbier than Lan Anh, but Lan Anh is the older sister because she was born 15 minutes before Ngoc Yen.
Two little girls with two different personalities and bloodlines have gone through a very special journey.
Lan Anh's shyness partly proves the emotional loss she suffered as a child.
As for Ngoc Yen, the girl was a bit bolder because she was used to the house and drank Trang's milk since birth. That was the reason why Trang and her husband Khien later decided to adopt Ngoc Yen.
"By the time the hospital completed the procedures to return the two children to their biological parents' home, Ngoc Yen had gotten used to living with me. When she went to Lien's mother's house, she cried continuously and always wanted to go back to her parents' home out here.
There were days when after dinner, my child hugged the house pillar until dark and asked to go home because he was afraid of strangers in there," Trang shared.
Out here, Lan Anh's story is not any better. After three years living in the hamlet with her mother Lien, she has become accustomed to rustic dishes such as neem leaves, eggs with soy sauce, and thut soup... Out here, even though her biological parents buy her many delicious dishes, she still doesn't like them.
Lan Anh was initially shy in front of her biological mother, clinging to her father Khien all day, but after a while she asked to be taken back to the hamlet. Feeling sorry for her children, the two mothers decided to let the two children live in each house for a week. "At first, the two stopped crying, but who would have thought that on the fifth day they would cry again and ask to go home. After divorcing Ngoc Yen's biological father, Lien had a new family and had to work far away. Seeing that, I discussed with her to let Ngoc Yen live here with us," Trang recalled.
What Trang and Khien worried about at that time was how to make Ngoc Yen and Lan Anh live happily together as a family. "One child is not my biological child but drank my milk and was taken care of by my family for the first three years of his life. The other child lived in another mother's house. At that time, the couple had a hard time bringing the two sisters together," Trang added.
To strengthen their sisterhood, Khien let Lan Anh and Ngoc Yen sleep together, then asked the teacher to let them study in the same class and study together to teach each other. Now the boundary is gone, the two sisters have entered 6th grade with boundless love from Trang's mother and Khien's father.
The extended family is now happy after the rare incident - Photo: AN VI
Use parental love to overcome hardships
At noon, when Mr. Khien had just come home from work, Ngoc Yen and Lan Anh rushed out to greet their father. Ms. Trang said that at home, the two children were afraid of their mother, but Mr. Khien spoiled his daughters so much that they all followed their father.
The man who had a difficult journey to find his child more than 10 years ago still cannot forget the feeling of the first time he met Lan Anh at Lien's mother's place: "My grandfather went out to sell things and accidentally saw a child who looked like his daughter. The whole family immediately ran in because before that, I also suspected that Ngoc Yen did not look like anyone else in the family. At first glance, my father's intuition told me that she was my daughter. When the DNA results confirmed that fact, the whole family was overwhelmed with emotion."
Since adopting Ngoc Yen, Mr. Khien said everything has been more difficult than before. "I have never complained to my children. No matter how hard it is, my husband and I have tried to overcome it to see innocent smiles on our two children's lips," Mr. Khien shared.
After the incident, many people asked how the two innocent children were not hurt. Trang and her husband said they were using their love as parents to make up for it.
Besides Ngoc Yen and Lan Anh, the eldest daughter named Phuong is the emotional bond between her two younger sisters. Lan Anh is most afraid of her older sister, because every time she gets a low score or doesn't help her parents, Phuong will "show off" her power immediately.
Phuong is in 9th grade and often teaches her two younger siblings. The older sister commented that Ngoc Yen is good at math and has good thinking skills. Lan Anh is good at literature, which is true to her thoughtful appearance. Pointing to their study table, Khien said that the three sisters share many things, such as the badminton set for physical education. After Ngoc Yen finishes studying, she goes to Lan Anh, then to her older sister Phuong. Or the old laptop that the three sisters also share.
"I'm happy to have two mothers"
After many difficulties, Mr. Khien has trained his children to be resilient. This year, he and his wife decided to separate their classes to see if Ngoc Yen and Lan Anh could cook, prepare food and go to school by themselves when they had different classes.
"Everything is going very well, both children can do everything by themselves. Sometimes when my husband and I come home late from work, the three daughters at home prepare food for their parents," Mr. Khien said proudly. Lan Anh boasted that she also knows how to help her mother scrape cashews. "I help my mother scrape because I see how hard it is for her, her back gets tired after sitting for a while," the innocent girl said.
Sometimes when Lien's mother came home from work, Lan Anh asked Khien's father to take her to visit her mother. The mother was not related by blood but had carried and raised her when she was little. Although she had only lived in the hamlet for three years, the little girl said she still remembered the way home and had many friends there. "It's because my parents didn't let me go alone, but when I grew up, I still remembered the way home to visit Lien's mother," Lan Anh said.
During the recent Tet holiday, Lien's mother, who worked far away, also stopped by the house to take Lan Anh and Ngoc Yen to buy new clothes. When asked how many sets she had, Lan Anh shyly replied that she only had one set. The little girl quickly understood the situation when she explained that Lien's mother didn't make much money and had to take care of her two younger siblings, so she bought a few.
Ngoc Yen chirped: "I'm happy because I have two mothers. Other friends only have one mother so they don't get as much love as I do."
"So when Ngoc Yen grows up and thinks more maturely, what should we do if she wants to live with her biological mother?" - a neighbor asked. "Oh, that's good for her, if she thinks like that, my husband and I will be happy. Ngoc Yen is grown up, then we will respect her decision" - Ms. Trang pondered for a moment before answering the question and rubbing the corners of her red eyes.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/dien-bien-bat-ngo-cua-cau-chuyen-2-be-bi-trao-nham-o-binh-phuoc-gan-10-nam-truoc-20250212223538045.htm
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