Switched at Birth

Kay Rene Qualls, left, and DeeAnn Shafer recently learned they had been switched shortly after their births in Oregon.

Heppner, OR



They are calling themselves “twisters.” After all, the standard terms of family and relationships seem insufficient to describe the recently discovered connection between Kay Rene Qualls and DeeAnn Shafer.

Both women were born on May 3, 1953, the only births that day in tiny Pioneer Memorial Hospital in rural Heppner, Ore. Both grew up happily, got married, raised children and now have grandchildren.

Then, last summer, say friends and family members, an elderly woman who knew the families of both women long ago made a call to Mrs. Qualls’s brother. The woman, who has not been identified, had news she felt she had to share as her life neared its end and the younger women’s parents had already died.