A couple in Volvograd, Russia,
were recently reunited with the child they had though had died seven years ago,
right after birth. What’s even more astonishing is that the startling revelation
was the result of a completely accidental administrative error.
In 2011, a young girl gave birth at a hospital in Volgograd, but was soon told
that her child was not viable and that it would not survive a week. Advised to
give up the child, the depressed mother agreed to sign a waiver leaving the
newborn in the care of the state and went home. Five days later, guilt
overwhelmed the two parents, so they returned to the hospital to retrieve their
baby and look after it for as little as it had to live. They were told that they
were too late, that the baby had died. After grieving their terrible loss, the
parents went on with their lives, but last year, they were shocked to discover
that the child had been alive all this time.
If not for a random administrative error, the two parents would most likely
never have known that the child they though had died was actually alive in a
Volgograd orphanage. Last year, the Federal Bailiff Service (FSKP) received an
executive document stating that the couple owed the state 230,000 rubles
($4,100) in unpaid bills for the boarding of a minor at a local orphanage. As
per standard procedure, bailiffs were dispatched to the address on record to
inform the couple about the unpaid fees. They were no longer living there,
though, so the FSKP had no choice but tho freeze their bank accounts.
When the woman tried to withdraw money from her bank, she was informed that her
account had been blocked by the Federal Bailiff Service. She visited the local
FSKP office for an explanation, and after seeing the documents from the
orphanage, she reportedly fainted.
“It became clear that the married couple had been assured for all this time that
the child was dead,” a spokesperson for the FSKP told RG.ru. “The parents, so
unexpectedly aware of the ‘resurrection’ of their baby, immediately appealed to
the court for the restoration of parental rights.”
In November of 2017, a judge granted full custody of the minor to its biological
parents, and the family was finally reunited earlier this year.
It’s nice to know that this bizarre story has a happy end, but the parents are
still left with unanswered questions, like why the hospital told them that their
child had died seven years ago, why they were billed for its boarding at the
orphanage and why they didn’t receive these bills earlier.
It is not known if the family plans to take legal action against the hospital.