While the Twiggs-May baby swap, which took place in Florida in 1978, has attracted media attention, including the TV movie Switched at Birth , this is the first book to suggest that the swap was no ``accident'' but a deliberate, unethical act. According to information garnered by the author, Barbara Mays delivered a terminally ill baby girl after years of trying to have a child. Soon after giving birth, Barbara was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Meanwhile, Regina Twigg delivered her seventh child, a healthy girl, three days after Barbara. Schwartz-Nobel is convinced that since Mays was the daughter of the hospital's founder and ``deserved'' a healthy child and since Twigg had so many other children, that Mays's parents and doctors deliberately made the swap and altered hospital records to cover up the conspiracy. She also discovered that Bob Mays, Barbara's husband, abused his wife and child. A court hearing is pending to determine the fate of the child, Kimberly, ``caught somewhere between the emotional bonds established during the short lifetime she has spent with Bob Mays and the strong biological blood bond with the Twiggs.'' For true crime collections.-- Belinda Pugh, Kings Bay Base Lib., Ga.
Was it a coincidence that when two pregnant women entered a Florida hospital, and one of their babies was born with a congenital heart defect, the woman who left the hospital with a healthy child was related to prestigious hospital board members and donors? Nobel has researched this question vigorously, discovering that indeed a baby switch did occur. Regina and Ernest Twigg brought home a girl they called Arlena, while their actual daughter, known as Kimberly, is being raised by Bob Mays, whose wife died from cancer not long after the switch. As the book ends, the Twiggs are still caught up in court disputes over visitation even though medical tests have proven their case. The author alternates the recollections of Regina Twigg with those of Cindy Mays (Kimberly's former stepmother), probably to heighten tension, but the result is sometimes confusing. Nobel's telling of this sensational tale, which has been highlighted on talk shows, offers an in-depth look at the people involved.
