Guy Switched at Birth Gets $317K to Make Up for It

Imagine it: You're raised in a tiny apartment by a single mom and grow up to be a truck driver ... only to find out you were actually born to a wealthy family and accidentally switched at birth, and the baby raised in your place grew up to be the president of a real estate company. Would anything make up for it? That's what happened to an anonymous 60-year-old Japanese man, who discovered the mix-up two years ago and was recently awarded $317,000 from the hospital where it happened, NPR reports, citing local media.

The money is meant to relieve the "mental distress" of being deprived "an opportunity to gain a higher education," the court said. The man's biological brothers (and the boy who took his place in the family) all attended private high schools and universities, while the truck driver only went as far as junior high school and, later, industrial high school night courses. He now helps take care of the three older brothers with whom he was raised, the Telegraph reports. The mix-up was discovered after the man's biological brothers, doubtful they were related to their oldest brother because he didn't look like them, started investigating. Their parents died before the error was discovered, but the brothers say they want to forge a relationship with their newfound sibling. (Two new moms went home with the wrong babies last month, but that mix-up was discovered after just three weeks.)