Testimony casts light on Sister María's "protocol" with patients

Testimony given in a suspected case of stolen babies this week has given Purificación Betegón hope that the fate of her twins may be resolved, as well as providing insight into a system of alleged forced adoptions.

Teresa Gallardo, the doctor in residence at the Santa Cristina hospital in Madrid when Betegón gave birth on February 23, 1981, told the court there was a special "protocol" in place for mothers sent to the maternity unit by Sister María Gómez Valbuena, who before her death in January was the only person to be officially named as a suspect in two stolen babies cases, including that of Betegón. "When they were admitted and their notes said 'Sister María's patient' it was understood the baby was to be put up for adoption," Gallardo told the court. "The mothers were anesthetized so they wouldn't hear their babies cry." In the margin of Betegón's clinical record - the document that permitted the case to be reopened after it was initially shelved - was a handwritten note: "Advise Sister María."

Gallardo said she had no idea births such as these involved illegal adoption and added that of all the maternity cases she had overseen in four years at Santa Cristina, about five percent were carried out in this way.

Luis Felipe Capote, a pathologist called to testify, said the autopsy carried out on the babies appeared to be his. He told reporters they had died. "Whatever happened at Santa Cristina with other mothers is not the case here. I wish it were true [that they had been adopted and are still alive]."

Betegón's lawyer said the autopsy could easily have been falsified as it was typewritten and not signed by Capote. Betegón said she had never considered putting her children up for adoption. "Sister María asked me how I was going to raise two children when I was a single mother with a son. I said it was my problem. They were my children!"

"The kiss they stole"

In another development in the unfolding swath of stolen baby investigations, both public and private, Ana Isabel A. P., who suspected she was stolen 44 years ago from a Valencia orphanage, wrote on a Facebook page for victims and their families: "On May 24 I received a call that changed my life. I found my four brothers and my biological mother. Now, 44 years later, I am a daughter. I will give her the kiss they stole from us when I was born."