Orphaned Korean sisters reunite in US hospital

Meagan Hughes, left, and Holly Hoyle O’Brien / Courtesy of Twitter

Two Korean women who were adopted by American families when they were children miraculously reunited as they happened to work on the same floor of an American hospital, the American newspaper The Herald Tribune reported Saturday.

Meagan Hughes and Holly Hoyle O’Brien, who started working at Doctors Hospital of Sarasota, Florida, earlier this year, have discovered through DNA tests that they are blood-related sisters.

After they met, they became close fast.

The sisters had become separated when Hughes was adopted by an American family in Kingston, New York, in 1976 when she was five. Two years later, O’Brien, at age nine, was also adopted by an American family in Alexandria, Virginia.

O’Brien, 46, whose Korean name is Shin Bok-nam, suggested to Hughes that they take the DNA test together. O'Brien noticed that Hughes, whose Korean name is Eun-sook, shared the same Korean last name as hers and also had the same history of being adopted by an American family.

The sisters were living in an orphanage where they were left by their stepmother after she got away from her alcoholic husband with her children.