Britt Jones
A man has learned the truth about his birth after the siblings joked that he was the product of an affair.
Kevin McMahon, from Long Island had always felt different in his little family.
Where his siblings had fair skin and straight hair, he was the odd one out.
But it wasn’t until it was suggested to him to try DNA testing, that the truth came to light.
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Speaking to CBS, the man shared: "My siblings joked that, 'You were the mailman's kid'."
McMahon said that while he was growing up, he was unloved by the adults who were supposed to look after him.
His mother was an alcoholic, and his father had always believed that she had engaged in an affair with another man, producing him as a result.
This led to him feeling neglected.
"My siblings joked that, 'You were the mailman's kid. He doesn't look anything like us'. My younger siblings were fair skinned, straight haired, blue eyed with freckles," McMahon said.
Sadly, it would all be revealed after dabbling with Ancestry.com.
After a tortured upbringing, McMahon works in telecommunications, is married and has a 21-year-old daughter.
After sixty-four years of questions and wondering why he felt so different, he finally knew the answer.
McMahon had been switched at birth.
As it turns out, McMahon and another baby with the same last name had been born just minutes apart at the Jamaica Hospital.
So, he and Ross McMahon, were mistakenly believed to be each other.
While baby Kevin went home with Ross's biological parents in Queens, baby Ross went with Kevin's biological parents to Long Island.
For Kevin, this was a terrible thing that ‘changed the course’ of his life.
"There's no mystery as to what happened. Jamaica Hospital switched the babies and the DNA proves it," McMahon's attorney Jeremy Schiowitz shared.
The man went on to say that there was ‘torment’ in the home he grew up in, and while he was neglected by his supposed parents, he was then abused by his paternal ‘grandmother’ too.
It was this grandparent that convinced his father that he was the product of an illegitimate affair, when she said: "He's not my son's child."
"[Jamaica Hospital] made one calamitous mistake, and it just changed the entire course of my life," McMahon said. "It would have changed the whole course of my life"
After learning the truth about his birth, McMahon found out that his biological parents shared the same passions as he did.
His father was a woodworker, and his mother loved birds.
However, because of the switch, he was never able to bond with them.
"I feel I could have shared so much with my parents, with my birth parents, but I didn't get get to do that. It would have changed the whole course of my life," he said.
Through the test, he also learned he has a biological brother named Keith, and that his biological parents have since passed away.
As have the parents who raised him.
Now, he’s suing the hospital, and believes that they should take full responsibility.
"The hospital, when they are in this business, they are playing God. They should be held to a completely different standard," he said.