Monday, October 17,1988
The Battalion
Page 9
World/Nation
Possible baby switch leaves
parents searching for proof
v
WAUCHULA, Fla. (AP) — In the
estive season between Thanksgiving
nd Christmas of 1978, two little girls
rere born within three days of each other
Hardee Memorial Hospital.
One girl was an only child. She grew
pstrong, doing the things she loved like
jller skating and swimming. But an
ther side of her life was tragic. Her
lother died of cancer when she was only
, and five years later, her stepmother
ift after divorcing her father.
The other girl grew up with a faint
:art, in and out of hospitals, unable to
alike the rest of the kids, instead turn-
pg to the piano, dressing up and day-
eaming of becoming a model. She had
iven sisters and brothers.
The sick girl, Arlena Twigg, died too
ung, at age 9, a smile on her face,
filing valiantly to survive the heart that
|as defective.
Now, a decade after the girls were
m, comes a startling revelation, along
ith allegations and intrigue that have
ed the lives of their families upside
wn.
Arlena Twigg’s parents say they
ed shortly before her death two
nths ago that she was not their daugh-
by birth. Blood and genetic testing re-
ired for surgery confirmed it.
They allege the hospital deliberately
apped babies on them, that their real
child is healthy.
■They think they know who she is.
■At issue are the credibility and the mo
les of the two families, strangers to
pach other, the mystery of who the real
plena Twigg is, and, on a broader
Je, the ethics and morality of pursuing
if search.
gArlena died without knowing the dark
ret. The other girl lives in a apartment
plex in Sarasota, Fla., sheltered
Jmthe turmoil swirling around her.
|ier father lives in fear that someone
|»ill walk up to her and say something.
It came outside and talked to an Asso-
pucd Press reporter who knocked on his
dot:: he asked that his daughter’s name
it withheld.
|jlegina and Ernest Twigg have filed a
million lawsuit against the 50-bed
tal, three doctors and a nurse,
ging they negligently and willfully
itched their baby with the sick child
altered Arlena Twigg’s medical birth
rds to cover their deception.
: the babies were deliberately
ched, what was the motive?
That’s a good question,” William
Post, the couple’s lawyer, said. “I don’t
Jlhe defendants deny the charges, and
one i)f their attorneys called the allega-
\' '' lions groundless and irresponsible.
1(1 passe f■ky’re all too real for the Twiggs,
bman “ Removed from Florida to Langhorne,
Pa., near Philadelphia, about a year ago
to be closer to a hospital that specializes
in the treatment of cases like Arlena’s.
“When you lose one that you love as
dearly as Arlena,” said Mrs. Twigg, her
voice breaking into sobs, “you look at a
little girl and you see one with long dark
hair and you grieve. You wonder about
the birth baby and what she would look
like. Does she have reddish blonde hair
like one of my other children? Does she
have brownish hair? What’s her little
personality like?”
Her obsession led investigators using
public records to the 9-year-old blonde
haired, blue-eyed girl in Sarasota, who
the Twiggs’ attorneys suspect is the real
daughter.
Mrs. Twigg is driven by memories of
her own adoption when she was 9 that
separated her from a younger sister she
hasn’t seen since.
The Twiggs lost another daughter, Vi-
via Grace, who died in 1975 when she
was 7 weeks old, also of heart disease,
and on the same date Arlena died three
years later, Aug. 23.
“This little sister I’m talking about,
it’s like losing the original baby,” Mrs.
Twigg said. “We grieve over having lost
a child that belonged to us as I grieved as
I grew up.”
The Twiggs’ attorneys are seeking to
have the Sarasota girl and her father ge
netically tested at the Johns Hopkins
Medical Institutions in Baltimore where
Arlena underwent a battery of 25 tests
that showed her not to be their biological
daughter.
The odds that the tests were wrong are
300 million-to-1, Phil Kibak, a spokes
man for Johns Hopkins said.
“Why should I?” asked the father in
Sarasota, a 43-year-old salesman. “I am
positive this is our daughter. I’m not
going to put my daughter through some
thing like this based on suspicion.
“She’s happy and very well-adjusted.
I do not intend to let anyone interfere in
her life. All I’m doing is protecting her
from finding out about this. ’ ’
He said of the Twiggs: “They need to
quit worrying about how they feel and
start thinking about how the child feels. ”
Daniel Callahan, an expert on medical
ethics who is director of the Hastings
Center in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.,
agrees.
Graphic by Kelly Morgan
;d it 52ft'
ds at the ^
ltd on W>
y-of-game?
n their 13. IP
Democrats see chance
or Nov. 8 election win
1 WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats
Hind inspiration Sunday in the Los An-
:s Dodgers’ win in the first game of
World Series, saying that Michael
.aids can still pull off a come-from-
lind victory over Republican George
llidm
pilau
k r
ark
* r .
arthquake
hits Greece;
25 injured
KILLINI, Greece (AP) — An
thquake struck western Greece
inday afternoon and government of
ficials said at least 25 people were in-
jred as buildings collapsed and land-
ides ripped down the mountain
lopes.
The Environment Ministry advised
iople not to return to hundreds of
imaged buildings.
State television said about 30 trem
ors of lesser magnitude rumbled
through the same region throughout
the afternoon.
“As far as we know a total of 25
tople were slightly injured by the
fake,” government spokesman So
lis Kostopoulos said. “The state ap-
ratus is on full alert and all the nec-
Isary material, such as tents and
drugs, have been sent to the area.”
■ The quake measured 6 on the Rich
ter scale, according to the Athens
Seismological Institute.
Bit said the initial quake occurred at
2:34 p.m. and the center was 150
miles west of Athens in the Ionian sea
between Killini and the resort island
ofZakinthos.
■“People panicked tremendously
and rushed out into the streets as soon
as it happened, ” local government
icial Aleka Markoyiannaki said.
“In some villages almost half of
the buildings collapsed,” she said.
“It was really very disastrous and the
damage is very extensive. ’ ’
IjAlmost 80 percent of the villages
l| Bartholomou and Kastro were de
stroyed, police in Killini reported.
Bush in the remaining three weeks of the
presidential campaign.
“I think we’re going to be like the
Dodgers last night,” Dukakis running
mate Lloyd Bentsen said. “It looked like
they were down and out, and all of a sud
den they hit a home run and won it. I
think we can do that in the next 24
days.”
Bush, alert to that possibility, said that
despite polls that show him widening his
lead over Dukakis, “we’re going to keep
on with our original game plan, keep
working hard, keep traveling to key
states. . . keep moving forward.”
“All I know is to just drive down to
the wire,” the vice president said.
Dukakis acknowledged in Boston that
he is entering the last leg of the long
campaign as an underdog, but advised
Republicans not to pop champagne corks
too early because “we’re going to be the
ones celebrating on election night.”
He said he will continue fighting for
the values he believes in. He said Bush,
as vice president, sat on the sidelines for
eight years while America got beaten in
world markets, while they mortgaged
children’s future to a mountain of debt,
and a piece of America was being sold
off every day at bargain basement prices.
The World Series analogy was used by
several Democrats.
“It’s an extremely close race,” said
Sen. Albert Gore, D-Tenn., on ABC’s
“This Week with David Brinkley.”
“You’re going to see Mike Dukakis
come on like Kirk Gibson in the bottom
of the ninth inning last night in that game
with two outs ... he could barely walk
around the base path, but he knocked a
home run to win the game,” Gore said.
The Dodgers beat the Oakland Athlet
ics, 5-4, in that first game of the Series.
Bush told reporters in Denver that he
already has a team studying the transition
to a Bush presidency and that he is ready
to name his Cabinet quickly. Former
Navy Undersecretary Chase Untermeyer
heads the Bush transition team.
“He has drawn up wiring diagrams,
what we should do if we win,” Bush
said. “You have to hit the ground run
ning.”
Bentsen, appearing on CBS-TV’s
“Face the Nation,” said the Democratic
ticket has been the target of character as
sassination by Bush and his running
mate, Dan Quayle.
“We were subjected to what I think
was the most demagogic attack that I’ve
REVIVAL SERVICES AT THE
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF COLLEGE STATION
OCTOBER 16-19,1988
Sunday Services
8:30 & 10:55 a.m.
7:00 p.m.
Weekdays
6:30 a.m. Bible and Breakfast Services
5:00 p.m. Evening Meal
7:00 p.m. Evening Worship
Tuesday Noon
Covered Dish Lunch & Service
Preacher
Robert Norman, Pastor
Clearview Baptist Church
Franklin, Tennessee
Music Director
S.W. (Sam) Prestidge
Director, Church Music Dept.
Baptist General Convention of Texas
Great Preaching, Warm Singing
2300 Welsh-696-7000
Everyone invited!
Please contact the church office for evening meal reservations.
December & May Grads
M.E., Chem E.,
and M.B.A.’s with technical undergraduate degrees:
What does an engineer
do in
MANUFACTURING
MANAGEMENT?
FIND OUT!
PROCTER & GAMBLE
will be hosting an open house
Tuesday, Oct. 18 7:00 p.m.
MSC, Room 206
Sign up for interviews will be Oct. 17-26 at the
Placement Center.
1§
ever seen at the presidential level,”
Bentsen said.
The Dukakis camp was trying to put
the best face on what many perceived as
a clear Bush victory in last Thursday’s
debate with Dukakis.
Dukakis adviser Robert Beckel said on
the ABC program that “there’s a lot of
time left in this race, there’s a lot of vola
tility in the electorate, and I find it amaz
ing that all of these people are writing
this race off. ”
But Ed Rollins, a Republican strateg
ist, said that “over the last three months,
George Bush has made the sale; he has
convinced the American public that he
has the strength and the ability to lead
this country.”
Said Rollins: “It’s just a question now
of getting the voters to the polls on Elec
tion Day.”
According to a published report, Du
kakis plans to concentrate in the three
weeks left before the Nov. 8 election on
18 states with 272 electoral votes — two
more than needed for election — to
pound home basic economic themes and
to make Bush’s campaign style an issue
itself.
The Dukakis campaign vehemently
denied the account by the Washington
Post in Sunday’s editions.
“We are not writing off whole regions
of the country,” said campaign manager
Susan Estrich. “We’re very, very com
petitive in a large numbers of states. ”
Those 18 states, according to the Post,
are New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Michigan, Illinois and California; the
New England states of Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Vermont and Rhode Island;
Maryland, West Virginia and the District
of Columbia in the mid-Atlantic region;
Iowa and Wisconsin in the Midwest, and
Oregon, Washington and Hawaii in the
West.
In those states, the Post said, Dukakis
managers believe the Democratic nomi
nee is either favored or competitive with
Bush. Their list gives priority attention
to Montana, North and South Dakota,
Colorado, New Mexico, Missouri and
Kentucky, where they believe the Mas
sachusetts governor is trailing but com
petitive.
The Bush campaign, according to the
New York Times, will concentrate on
California, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and
Michigan, regarded as close.
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Join us at Garfields for
A Night of Excitement- including T-shirts
Give Aways, Free Drinks, and Lots of Fun!
Time: 8:00
Place: 1503 S. Texas Ave.
Date: Oct. 19,1988
T^egtauraqt & Vub
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