A mother in China never imagined that a simple online video could upend her world. But her sense of security was shattered when she came across footage of a lost girl at a railway station.

It all started on August 13 when Wang, a Shanghai resident, received a video from a friend. The clip featured a blogger who had found a little girl lost at the railway station and was trying to help reunite her with her parents.

Wang’s friend noticed the uncanny resemblance between the girl, now aged two-and-a-half, and her own daughter.

“My friend asked if I had lost my child. It completely stunned me,” she told Chinese Business View, as quoted by the South China Morning Post.

The mother, too, found it strange that the child bore an uncanny resemblance to her daughter.

A mother in China, surnamed Wang, was shaken after seeing a video of a lost girl who bore a striking resemblance to her own daughter

Image credits: Engin_Akyurt / Pixabay (Representational Image)

For Wang, who had her daughter through in vitro fertilization (IVF), the resemblance triggered more than concern.

She had spent about 70,000 yuan (US$9,800) to 80,000 yuan on the procedures. This included multiple egg retrievals and embryo implantation.

When her daughter was born in 2018, the hospital had stored additional embryos in case she wanted to expand her family.

Hence, seeing the lost girl raised unsettling doubts about whether there may have been a mix-up with her embryos in the hospital. She wondered whether the lost girl was somehow connected to her through a medical mistake or even misuse.

The little girl in the video, now two and a half, was found at a railway station by a blogger, prompting the mother’s friend to ask if she had lost her child

中国で行方不明の少女が自分の試験管内で生まれた娘に不気味なほど似ており

主張する中国の母親は、保管されていた受精卵が悪用されたのではないかと疑っている pic.twitter.com/zOV38PGzTq

— ロイエンタール新領土総督 (@6QhdTQGwiXXAlxb) August 26, 2024

“When doing IVF, they do not just retrieve one egg. There could have been a mistake where my egg was given to someone else, or perhaps the doctor made an error,” the mother said.

“We do not dare accuse the hospital of wrongdoing without evidence, but if there was a violation, we need to address it,” she added.

Desperate for answers, the mother contacted the blogger who had found the girl at the railway station. However, the content creator informed her that she did not have the family’s contact details.

She then made a public appeal, seeking to contact the lost girl’s family for a DNA test. She emphasized that her intentions were not malicious, and she only wanted to understand whether she had a biological connection to the child.

With additional embryos stored at the hospital, Wang feared that a medical error might have resulted in one of her embryos being used to conceive another child

A concerned friend of Wang’s had sent the video to her after noticing the striking resemblance between the girl and Wang’s daughter who was born through in vitro fertilisation (IVF).https://t.co/HWH7NFjl4chttps://t.co/HWH7NFjl4c

— The Star (@staronline) August 25, 2024

If it turned out to be a mere coincidence, she was open to forming a friendship with the other family.

“I just want to find this family to confirm the situation. If the resemblance is purely coincidental, we could even become friends. We have no ill intentions,” she said. “Although we do not have the right to demand anything, we would still like an answer.”

The mystery came to a standstill on August 18 when the missing girl’s parents came forward and confirmed that their daughter had been born naturally.

The police were also informed of the issue by the girl’s parents.

Desperate for answers, Wang made a public appeal to contact the girl’s family for a DNA test to determine if there was a biological connection

Image credits: Myriams-Fotos / Intagram (Representational Image)

Wang, who eventually deleted her video appeal, found that several people online believed it was a mere “coincidence” that the missing girl looked like her own daughter.

“Isn’t it possible that the other girl was naturally born, and it’s just a coincidence that they look alike?” one asked, while another said, “It’s just that the kids look alike. Why bother finding the family? What is she trying to prove?”

“She is just making trouble,” read another comment. “If there is a problem, she should go to the hospital, not bother the other family. This should be dealt with privately, not posted online.”

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