A dying nurse has come forward on her deathbed and alleged to have swapped more than 5,000 babies simply for the amusement that such an activity would give her in the moment.
Should this story be believed or is it simply another hoax?
The story’s details are as seemingly fantastical as they are disturbing. Is this the worst maternity ward nurse the world has ever seen?
The Zambia Observer reports that a nurse going by the name of Elizabeth Bwalya Mwewa honed a personal habit of switching up babies for the amusement such an activity would bring her.
The incidents are alleged to have taken place at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, Zambia.
The nurse is coming forward now because she’s being eating alive by cancer. She wants to recant and atone as far as possible given the heinous nature of her crimes.
The death-bed confession inspires as many questions as answers.
Can forgiveness be given for someone who has done something like this? Should the adults be notified about the purported mix-up from years gone by?
The Observer found that these incidents span a dozen years from 1983 all the way through to 1995.
The full scope of what this nurse is purported to have done therefore takes on huge proportions in terms of the number of people potentially affected.
The response from social media has been loudly opinionated, almost apoplectic.
The truth, though, may be far more banal since the Lusaka Times couldn’t find any corroborating evidence or records of a nurse going by the name of Mrs. Mwewa in their history.
Establishing such an individual would be the first step in corroborating the story, but this one might be dead on arrival.
What’s curious is that there does appear to be a Mrs. Mwewa out there who is stubbornly keeping with her earlier claim.
To her mind, Mwewa is atoning for some vast, unspeakable crime spree that occurred over a dozen years.
Until further evidence is forthcoming, this story will have to be assigned to the moot category.
Stories about babies switched at birth are sometimes proven to be true and, in that sense, these confessors are vindicated.
Two babies in the Indian state of Assam were said to be swapped in 2015, and that story was later found to be true, though shocking.
Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, indeed. Nonetheless, Mrs. Mwewa remains adamant.