Two men allege North Dakota hospital switched them at birth

Two North Dakota men born hours apart at Unity Medical Center in Grafton say a 1988 hospital mistake sent each home with the wrong family, setting up a lawsuit that now reaches back 38 years. The case centers on Jeremy Morrison and Kyle Bylin, both born on Jan. 26, 1988, and identified in new reporting as the only two babies born at the hospital that day.

The lawsuit, filed in Walsh County District Court, names six plaintiffs: Morrison, Bylin, Evelyn Newton, Keith Bylin, Elizabeth O’Toole and Terry Morrison. They are seeking more than $50,000 in damages and a jury trial, and their complaint includes claims for negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, deceit and medical malpractice.

Morrison has said the discovery began with a DNA test that linked his aunt to Bylin as her nephew. He has also described growing up feeling unlike the family that raised him, including noticing that he was blonde-haired in a brown-haired family. The alleged switch was discovered in 2023, adding a modern DNA trail to an old question of hospital recordkeeping, delivery-room oversight and what liability remains when the paper trail has gone cold.

Unity Medical Center, whose corporate entity is Christian Unity Hospital Corporation, has denied the allegations. The hospital said records from 1988 no longer exist, said no one from the 1988 delivery team is still employed there and asked the court to dismiss the case with prejudice, arguing the dispute may be barred by the statute of limitations. The hospital has also said it found no evidence linking it to the alleged baby switch.

CBS News reported that both sets of parents have now met their biological sons, but Morrison and Bylin have not yet met each other. That detail underscores how the case has moved beyond family shock and into questions of identity, inheritance and medical history, all tied to a birth record from a hospital in Walsh County in northeastern North Dakota.

The alleged switch traces back to Jan. 26, 1988, in Grafton, and the legal fight now asks a court to decide whether a decades-old error can still be pursued, even as the people who worked the delivery have long since left and the records have disappeared.