El Salvador: DNA reveal couples son was deliberately swapped at birth

Richard Cushworth and his wife Mercedes Casanellas is a reminiscence of the De Valle's and the David's in the hit TV series Mara and Clara when their daughters were swapped at birth. The couple welcomed a son at a hospital in San Salvador in May this year, but say they immediately noticed that something was wrong.

The couple, (pictured right with the 'swapped' child and left with their biological child) who live in Dallas, Texas, waited three months before they took a DNA test - which proved the child handed to them by hospital staff has a 0.00 per cent probability of being related to either of them. They now fear their light-skinned baby (also pictured inset) was snatched deliberately by staff at the exclusive Ginecologico private hospital in the country's capital San Salvador to sell to child traffickers.

Ms Casanella's obstetrician-gynecologist, Dr Alejandra Guidos, who the couple accuse of masterminding the plot, was arrested on Thursday. The country's Attorney General has now ordered a criminal investigation into the baby's disappearance amid claims a trafficking gang, led by Dr Guido, has been operating inside the hospital. Ms Casanellas said: 'I just want him to give me my baby back.' The couple said that if the true parents of the baby they were given are not found, they will raise him as their own.

In an emotional interview with a local TV station, a teary Ms Casanellas said: 'We haven't been able to sleep thinking about where he is, and who has him. We just want them to give us our son back.' Mr Cushworth, who met Ms Casanellas when he worked as a missionary in El Salvador, added: 'It's a horrible situation. I have a child and I don't know where he is. Someone took my child and I have no idea where he is, who is taking care of him, what has happened to him. Is he in the country? It's awful. I sometimes try not to think about this because it is so frightening.'