Two women have revealed their devastation after finding out that they were switched at birth 55 years ago.
Jill Lopez and Tina Ennis, 57, first opened up about the mix-up in February, revealing that the parents who raised them were not their biological family.
The pair were born at the same hospital on the same day in May 1964 and grew up two hours away from one another in Oklahoma, in the US.
But it was only three years ago when they finally met after a DNA test revealed that they had been swapped as newborns.
The women have since filed a lawsuit against the hospital and opened up about the impact of the shocking revelation in an interview with Today.
Jill's biological mum Kathryn Jones, who raised Tina, told the publication about the impact it has had on her as a parent, describing it as if "somebody took a hatchet" to her heart.
She recalled thinking that Tina was a beautiful baby at birth and insisted she looked just like the man they thought was her biological dad, who left when she was two years old.
The families' heartbreaking discovery came in 2019 when Tina took a DNA test to find out more about her granddad, Kathryn's father, who also left when she was a child.
But she was confused by the results, which included a list of DNA relatives with names she did not recognise - including Brister.
Kathryn did not recognise the names either so Tina arrange for her to take a DNA test too and their results did not match.
Tina's daughter suggested that they had been switched at birth and so they began researching the names given by Ancestry.com.
This led her to a woman who was born on the same day, lived nearby and resembled Kathryn in her appearance.
"I thought it looked just like my mother," Tina said.
Further digging led them to Jill, the woman in the picture, who Tina also asked to take a DNA test.
The results came back as a match for her mum.
Tina said: "All I could think about was how I was going to tell my mum.
"I just thought she's not going to be able to handle it. That's what I thought about."
Her mum Kathryn was heartbroken by the news, but said Tina will always be her daughter.
"It just devastated me. Totally devastated me," she said.
"I could not lose Tina, she'll always be my daughter. I have loved her from the second they laid her in my arms."
Tina explained that Kathryn feared losing her but insisted she was not going to disappear after finding out about her biological roots.
She has now got to know the woman she was switched with and discovered they share a love for shopping, real estate and the colour purple.
Her biological parents Joyce and John Brister, who raised Jill, have died.
Jill said: "It's a hard thing to know what to do because there are no books to buy to get you through it."
Tina and Jill were both born at Duncan Physicians and Surgeons Hospital in Oklahoma on May 18, 1964.
They are now suing Duncan Regional Hospital, which merged with the hospital, for recklessness and negligent inflection of emotional distress.
Despite the merge in 1975, Duncan Regional Hospital claims that it is not the same and is therefore not responsible for the birth swap.
Kathryn told how one of the worst parts of the ordeal was learning that her grandchildren were not biologically hers either.
She said: "It was like somebody had ripped out a part of my heart. I just couldn't deal with it."
Tina, the daughter she raised, added: "There's so many people involved. It's not just me and Jill. It's two entire families."
