A 60-year-old man has been awarded £250,000 damages from a hospital because he was swapped at birth which meant he was raised in poverty instead of in a life of luxury.
The case has emerged in Japan where the man said he wishes he could 'roll back the clock' after learning that his real parents were wealthy and that his true brothers enjoyed a lavish lifestyle.
Instead, the man was raised by his non-biological mother, who was also struggling to support her other children following the death of her husband. He grew up to be an unmarried lorry driver.
Now a Tokyo district court has ordered the hospital to pay £250,000 in damages for its 1953 error, which saw the man switched with another baby boy who came into the world just 13 minutes later.
When he eventually learned that he could have grown up wealthy the man said: '"I might have had a different life. I want the hospital to roll back the clock to the day I was born."
If he'd been handed to the right mother after his birth, he would have grown up as the eldest of four brothers in a wealthy family, enjoying a relative life of luxury including having private tutors.
The mistake was realised when the wealthy family's three younger brothers had DNA testing done on their oldest sibling - who looked nothing like them - after their parents died.
Then they set out checking hospital records before confirming the identity of their biological eldest brother last year.
All four brothers - including the one who should have had a more lowly upbringing due to the accidental switch - have now formed a bond and are working on rebuilding the lost years.
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