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'After giving blood, I discovered I'd spent 22 years living with the wrong family.'

At 22 when Doris Grünwald decided to donate blood for the first time, she had no idea it would undo everything she knew about her life to that point.

The Austrian woman discovered her blood was not Type A negative, as she had previously thought, which triggered the realisation she could not be related be to the couple who had raised her.

A DNA test confirmed Doris’ worst fears; her mother and father were not her biological parents.

The family now firmly believes the mistake was caused by a hospital mix-up in the hours after her birth on October 31, 1990.

Doris Grünwald. Source: Facebook

This week, a regional court ordered Austria's hospital association to pay 30,000 euros, or close to AU$45,000, for the pain caused by their "gross negligence" and so the 27-year-old can be formally adopted by the people she always thought were her parents, according to The Sun.

Meanwhile, Doris has taken to social media to try find her biological parents and the other young woman affected by the unimaginable error.

"Since the [hospital] still denies that a child interchange had happened with them and we have not yet found our biological parents or child, I am also trying to do this," she wrote in a Facebook post.

"If someone feels touched or has a hint, I would be very grateful for a contact."

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Hallo! Mein Name ist Doris Grünwald. Ich wurde am 31.10.1990 im LKH Graz geboren. Nach mehr als 20 Jahren ging ich...

Posted by Doris Grünwald on Friday, 2 June 2017

Doris' impetus to find her counterpart was increased last year when she discovered she was pregnant herself.

"It is no longer just about me, but also about my unborn child," she told Krone in an interview in 2016.

"Are there hereditary diseases that I should know about? This is important for me."

Evelin Grünwald gave birth in the University Hospital Graz by caesarean section and because of birth complications was administered a full anesthetic, according to Krone.

She did not meet Doris until 20 hours later and believes it was during the intervening period that the two newborns were interchanged.

Despite denying their wrongdoing, the hospital has offered free DNA tests to anyone who could logistically be the other party involved, according to The Local.

So far 30 women have been tested but no match has been found.

While Evelin admitted she could "live well without this information", she made it clear she would be there for both her adoptive and biological daughter in the long term.

"If my daughter wants to know where she comes from, I naturally support her in the search. The bond we have is anyway unique, which we will never be able to have with another human being," she told Krone.

"One could, in the ideal case, win another child."