Man reunited with his mother 41 years after she was told he had died during childbirth

A man who was 'stolen' from his mother hours after his birth 41 years ago has been reunited with his family.

Travis Tolliver, who only speaks English, wasn’t able to talk to his Chilean mother, Nelly Reyes - but the couple hugged at their meeting in the Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport in Santiago, Chile.

After meeting him for the first time, Ms Reyes said: “'I'm going to hug him every day.

“I love him so much.”

Ms Reyes, 61, said she was told by hospital employees when she gave birth to Mr Tolliver that he was unlikely to survive and subsequently that he had died a few hours later.

Ms Reyes said she never saw her son's body or received a death certificate, and Mr Tolliver was raised by a family in Tacoma, Washington.

Neither Mr Tolliver nor his adoptive parents knew what had happened to him. When he was 40 he began to use the internet to seek out his biological parents.

Mr Tolliver is working with authorities to establish what happened to him after his birth.