Twin Sisters “Switched” at Birth, Reunited After Being Raised By Different Families For 19 Years

By Edleena Sephia  •  28 Jun 2021 in News

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Because of a mistake made by a careless staff at a hospital in Kota Baru 19 years ago, Adryani Iwani and Adryana Iwani grew up as non-identical twins without even realising that the real twin sister, Noratirah was raised by another family.

According to NST, the truth began to unravel when Adryani Iwani attended a motivational camp when she was in Form Four.

“At the camp, I met students from another school who said that I looked like their friend, Noratirah. I then asked them for a picture of Noratirah and they shared Noratirah’s Instagram account with me.

“I told my twin sister about it and she agreed that Noratirah and I looked the same, but when I told my mother about it, she dismissed it. So, I just let it go and regarded our look alike as simply two peas in a pod,” she told Bernama.

Back in March of 2019, whether it was merely coincidental or fate, Adryani Izwani and Noratirah bumped into each other for the first time in their lives at a ‘Jom Masuk U’ Carnival held at a supermarket in Kota Baru.

“Both of us were stunned to see our similarities. We were lost for words and only stared at each other and the incident was noticed by our friends,” she added.

Since they shared mutual friends, when Adryani Iwani uploaded photos of her birthday on her Instagram, their friends pointed out that Noratirah also shares the same birthday.

“This led to Noratirah contacting me through Instagram and since then, we discussed a lot of things and discovered that there are too many similarities between us to be regarded as a coincidence. So, we decided to go for a DNA test.

“After discussing the matter with both our families, we agreed to proceed with the DNA test at the Universiti Sains Malaysia Hospital (HUSM) in Kubang Kerian to see if we are biologically related.

She added that blood samples from her, her mother Siti Aminah Ismail, 66, Adryana Iwani, Noratirah and Noratirah’s “father”, Husin Omar, from Kampung Pulau Kundur, Kota Bharu, were taken for the DNA test.

“The result found Noratirah and I are 99.99 per cent twin sisters. This shocked us, especially my mother, who broke down in tears.

“The result also found that Adryana Iwani, who was registered as my twin sister, is actually the biological daughter of Husin Omar and Rahmah Isa (died in 2018) who were named as Noratirah’s parents,” she said.

Meanwhile, Adryani Iwani’s sister, Ayu Haryani, 42, said when her mother gave birth to her twin sisters, who are the youngest, the family was not informed whether they were identical or not.

Adryani Iwani’s older sister, 42-year-old Ayu Haryani revealed that the family was not informed whether the twins were identical or not when their mother gave birth.

“The tags on their legs bore my mother’s name, so our family accepted them as non-identical twins,” she added.

Ayu Haryani is the second child in the family, she has an older brother, three younger brothers and four sisters, including the twins.

Based on birth certificates of Noratirah, Adryana Iwani and Adryani Iwani, they were born at 1.14am, 1.27am and 1.34am, respectively, on Aug 19, 2001.

She said her mother was initially reluctant to accept the DNA results and the matter was not revealed to anyone for fear of causing psychological impact, especially on Adryana Iwani.

Despite knowing the truth, Ayu Haryani said the family still think of Adryana Iwani as their sibling and wanted her to continue to stay with the family as usual since both of her biological parents have passed.

“Her biological mother has passed, while her biological father died two months after we got the DNA results,” she said, adding that her family had appointed a lawyer to take legal action against parties concerned.”

The three girls now live together happily as Noratirah has moved in to stay with her biological family in Kampung Langgar, Kota Baru, since last January.