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May 1, 2008 9:47 pm US/Pacific
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Call Kurtis Investigates: My Name Is Kevin
Hospital Botches Baby Girl's Birth Certificate
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―
A clerical error has meant an identity crisis for a Woodland girl, and she's not even a year old.
When her Mom struggled to get it fixed, she decided to call Kurtis Ming.
It seems there was a mix-up at the hospital. The parents of this baby girl say if you call out her legal name, It doesn't match up with her face.
"How big's the baby? How big's holly?" said Shasta Bair while holding her daughter.
At least Shasta thought her precious blue eyed baby girl's name was Holly.
The 10-month old's social security card says Kevin Earl Craig.
That's Holly's Dad's name. Shasta figured it was a simple mistake.
But when her birth certificate showed up, she learned it was a bit bigger than that. It also said Holly's name was Kevin Earl Craig, listing Kevin as a female.
"It kills me. It's not the name I gave my child. Why would I ever name her Kevin?" said Shasta.
The Sutter Davis Birthing Center, where she had Holly, admitted it botched the birth certificate.
"Whoever typed up the paperwork for her birth certificate and sent it to the state, put Kevin instead of Holly".
The hospital pledged to help fix it, but she says it stopped at the offer.
"The hospital has done nothing" said Shasta. "They haven't worked with me whatsoever".
So she took time off work trying to figure out...What to do.
The problem is no one knew until she reached county vital records which told her this has never happened in Yolo County before.
The only way to fix it? --a legal name change.
"I have to file everything with the state, and then I have to file with the social security information, and I have to do all that because I'm the parent, even though it's their mistake", Shasta told Kurtis.
Filing court papers, taking out a name change ad in the paper, and a new birth certificate will total more than 4-hundred dollars, not to mention Shasta says the discrepancy is keeping health insurers from covering Holly.
"I think they need to step up and give me the money to take care of this", Shasta told Kurtis.
I contacted Sutter Davis.
In an e-mail, a hospital spokesperson wrote, "We accept responsibility for the error on the birth certificate and have apologized for the inconvenience".
But the spokesperson points out, Shasta and her husband also "missed the error", when they signed it.
The hospital cut Shasta a check for $424 and she says they offered to take care of the cost of a couple doctors visits since Holly isn't insured.
Shasta told Kurtis, "I never thought I'd have to go through all of this".
Not knowing the hassle surrounding her name, Holly's smiling.
Hopefully it's something she, Mom and Dad can laugh about some day, long after her name is legally changed.
I'm going to save all this, so later on in life, she can look at it and say oh my god, I can't believe my name is Kevin.
They started the process in February.
They've gone to court once to get the name change.
We put them in touch with State Vital Records which says they have to go back to get approval for a new birth certificate.
It's important to never sign a birth certificate before carefully reading it.
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