Ecuadorian doctors 'stole twin'
The parents of identical twin girls who were separated at birth in Ecuador are suing doctors who they say kidnapped one of the babies.
The two girls, Andrea and Marielisa, are now 15 and were recently introduced by mutual friends.
Their biological parents say no-one told them they were having twins.
They say the mother, who gave birth by caesarean-section, never saw her second child. The doctors at the clinic deny the accusations.
It sounds like a plot from a Latin American soap opera.
But for the two girls involved, it is all too real. Marielisa and Andrea are identical twins, but have only recently met for the first time.
| We never knew of the existence of the second girl - they hid the truth from us Father |
The explanation for their separation varies hugely.
Their biological parents say they were never told they were having twins.
They accuse the two doctors at the clinic, who are married, of stealing their second child Marielisa.
"We never knew of the existence of the second girl," the girls' father, Augusto Freire, told the BBC. "They hid the truth from us."
Reunited
But the doctors involved say the mother knowingly left her second child in their care.
"It was total abandonment," said the doctors' lawyer, William Vallejo.
He said: "She was in those days a single mother, she couldn't count on the support of the girls' father. And she didn't have the necessary economic means nor have anyone in her family who could help her with twins."
Marielisa was then brought up with the doctors, aware she was not their biological child, they say.
It is a complicated story which has ended up in the Ecuadorian judicial system.
However it is eventually resolved, the two girls are happy to have found the twin they never knew they had.
When they were introduced, they apparently burst into tears at the realisation that, looking so identical, they had to be twins.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that they live in the town of Milagro, which means miracle in Spanish.
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