this is "nightline." >> tonight, dangerous game. the nfl taking the extraordinary step of postponing an nfl game after terrifying moments on the field. buffalo bills damar hamlin collapsing, administered cpr as players and coaches visibly shaken watched. he is in critical condition tonight. plus, chile's stolen children. one man's journey to find his birth family. >> and they sat me down and told me who i was and what the true back story really is. >> that truth unimaginable. a beautiful baby boy stolen from his birth mother. >> to think for 38 years that your son died. it would be just devastating. >> put up for adoption like

countless others as part of a plot sanctioned by the chilean government under the brutal pinochet regime. >> kidnapping, trafficking, judges, doctors, midwife, social assistants, they were all involved. >> a look back as a mother and son reconnect. >> mi nina. >> and tonight the dozens of other families they've helped since. >> "nightline" will be right back. : coughs] this'll help. vicks vaporub? vicks vaporub's ...medicated vapors go straight to the source of your cough... ...so you can relieve your cough to breathe easier. vicks vaporub. fast-acting cough relief. age is just a number, and mine's unlisted. try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health versus 16 grams in ensure® high protein. boost® high protein. now available in cinnabon® bakery-inspired flavor. learn more at boost.com/tv

good evening. thank you for joining us. we'll get to chile's stolen children in a moment. but first, extraordinary moment on the football field tonight. the nfl postponing the game this evening between the buffalo bills and the cincinnati bengals after 24-year-old damar hamlin collapsed on the field and was administered cpr for several minutes before he was rushed to the hospital. the nfl says he is in critical condition. the players and coaches from both teams were visibly distraught. for several minutes, a national football league stadium looked more like a chapel as players and coaches and fans prayed. earlier, i spoke to espn's lisa salters who was on the sidelines when this all happened. >> you were on the sideline when this happened. walk us through. was it immediately obvious that this was not your run of the mill football injury? >> for me, it was when players from both teams formed this kind

of human -- this human wall, this shield around what was going on, around what the medical personnel were doing with damar hamlin. that was when it became apparent to me that this was something different, because what was going on, players knew that we should not be seeing. they were trying to respect the privacy of their fallen teammate. and that is when i knew that this was something different. and quite frankly, that's when i started to be scared. >> we were all watching in here in new york in the office. and struck by the emotion of the players. and you're reminded that they're kids, right. these are young men in their 20s and 30s, and they're weeping. it just tore your heart out to watch it. >> you're reminded that they're not just young kids, that they're people. and so that's what struck me as well, just seeing the raw emotion on the players'

when damar hamlin was being worked on on the field. even after he was taken away in the ambulance, the bills players came to their sideline. we weren't sure at that point whether the game was going to continue or not. but the bills players, many just sat on their bench and just looked. players were hugging each other, trying to console each other. other players like you said were openly sobbing. they were in such real pain. and you could see it. >> lisa salters, a former colleague here at abc news. outstanding correspondent at espn. lisa, thank you so much for reporting tonight. many of us know the power of prayer. we'll be praying for this young man this evening. we'll continue to monitor the situation and update you with any further developments. we turn now to chile's stolen children. a mother and son reconnecting after he was stolen at birth. how they're helping other families reunite. here is my "nightline" co-anchor

juju chang. >> for nearly 40 years, hilda quezada godoy dreamt about her baby boy, who she last saw in the maternity ward. >> born three months premature, she hadn't even picked his name. >> but decades later, a phone call to hilda's daughter der >> that little boy with the piercing dark eyes hadn't died, he'd been taken, stolen in a plot sanctioned by the government of chile that defies the imagination.

tonight, a journey home. >> i got the shakes a little bit. >> one man embracing a family he never knew. for the first time seeing a life that was taken away. >> part of me wants to say -- >> and we're on the ground in chile, searching for answers. >> our team made dozens and dozens of phone calls and inquiries. >> can we ask you some questions about the illegal adoption? >> uncoverng the truth. >> what do you think about your role in what happened? >> of the shocking crimes carried out under the watchful eye of the pinochet dictatorship. >> kidnapping, trafficking. we are talking about 20,000 to 50,000 kids. >> it's inhumane. >> who was tyler graf before all this began? >> just an ordinary 38-year-old american man. i have a wife and kid. i work for the city of houston fire department. i was adopted by a very loving,

caring family. >> he was a happy little guy. he spent most of his childhood in minnesota. he skied. he played baseball. >> at what point did you tell him that he was adopted? >> you know, when he got old enough i think to understand what adoption was. i am not your birth mother. you were born to a family in chile. >> i brought your original documents. >> hilda carmen godoy, 26 years old. >> appeared before the judge and declared that she was the illegitimate mother. >> tyler's adoption report says he was born in temuco, chile, and that his mother gave him up because she had several other children and couldn't support hill. >> from now on she gives up all rights as a parent. >> it's only after he became a father that tyler began digging into his past to learn more about his adoption. >> i was notified by my friend who is a chilean firefighter who helped connect with a nonprofit

to help me just locate my birth mother. >> and suddenly, a call he thought might never come. that must have been the shock of your life. >> yes. >> one phone call. >> yeah. that's when they sat me down and told me who i was, how they know who i am. and what the true back story really is. >> arbitrary arrests and other human rights violations are still common in chile. >> we were a poor country. we have this dictatorship called augusto pinochet. chile was very depressed. >> during augusto pinochet's brutal regime, the practice of coercive adoptions became widespread. thousands of babies taken, trafficked around the world through a complex network that included hospitals, the catholic church, and the chilean government. midwives, social

assistants, they were all involved. >> the american families like tyler's say they had no idea that the baby they'd adopted had been stolen. some experts believe it was a government tool meant to reduce poverty and control population. those targeted often the most vulnerable, single mothers, the poor, and indigenous women from the mapuche community. >> they were selling kids. >> the moms, all the families were lied to them. they didn't know that their kids were alive. so they're not looking for them. >> what was your immediate reaction when it dawned on you that oh my god, my son is alive? >> after confirming the match through dna in 2021, the first video calls.

and finally, a face-to-face reunion in texas, organized by univision. after many months, it was time for tyler to go back to his birthplace, chile, for the very first time. >> it's living a life out of my comfort zone, going to a foreign country i've never been to before. i don't speak the language fluently. in chile. >> i woke up to this morning, out here in the mountains. front porch of my birth mother's house. >> como dice the early bird gets the worm.

>> tyler meeting the sisters he never knew he had. their family whole for the first time. >> if anyone is going to catch anything, it's my mom. >> transported, if only for a moment to a life that could have been. >> it's sad. ♪ >> our day revolving around meals at the table, cooking. it's just -- >> the little things in life. >> oh, for sure.

♪ >> to be a good mother, it's pretty simple. it's open arms and a huge heart. >> some people describe what happened to you as kidnapping. >> yeah, i would call it kidnapping or stealing. to catch someone at their weakest moments and prey on that, it's disgusting. for lack of better words, it's inhumane. >> outside the hospital for the first time, hilda and tyler are back where their story began. for them, the scene of a crime. there is a lot of emotion. ministrator to come down, show

them my dna test, and just say shame on you. >> what it represents is the beginning of this whole story, this whole atrocity that happened to so many. >> when we come back -- >> do you think at the time you knew that what was happening was wrong? >> the search for accountability. and we send tyler to see his adoptive mom. finding scribbles in a notebook that could now be evidence. >> that judge, tatiana roman, and these are social workers. >> stay with us. moderate to severe eczema still disrupts my skin. despite treatment it disrupts my skin with itch. it disrupts my skin with rash.

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so these are just some fun things that i kept. this is in temuco, and this was at the orphanage. >> carol graf carnish's path to motherhood bound in a faded baby book. >> here i am with you. i had been pregnant and lost a child so, we looked into adoption. we signed the papers. we go to the orphanage. baby is brought in at 10:10. and we're bonding with the baby. and then all of the sudden it was like okay, we have to go, and we're all of the sudden going to the airport, with no tickets.

why we were hurried out of there? >> we wanted to understand more about how these adoptions happened, the people behind this trauma. our team made dozens and dozens of phone calls and inquiries to top government officials to the catholic church, to social worker, and yet answers are still elusive. we tried to speak to the judge, tatiana roman, who signed tyler's adoption papers. >> hello? my name is juju chang. i'm with abc news from the united states. >> someone else came to the door. >> buenas, senor. [ speaking spanish ] >> can we ask you some questions about the illegal adoption? >> clearly not in the mood to answer questions.

but on a quiet street, someone who saw this network up close, a woman who said she was an assistant at one of those chilean hospitals. she asked us not to use her name or show her face. when did you hear the midwives tell lies to the mothers? >> do you think at the time you knew that what was happening was wrong? >> si. >> and if you could go back in time, what if anything would you do differently?

>> boris barrera is a chilean congressman, and in 201818 he launched an inquiry into what happened. do you think people are being held accountable for what you describe as human rights violations and crimes? >> barrera's investigation called for a truth in reparations investigation and a dna database, but no one has been charged with a crime. >> we're past the punishment stage. i think we're just looking for them to admit what they've done and to help reunite people. >> tyler and his family created a nonprofit, connecting roots, to help other adoptees. >> who are the victims here? >> oh, for sure his mom. to think for 38 years that your

son has been, you know -- died, it would be just devastating. i might be a victim, but i don't look at myself as that. >> why? >> i don't know. i think she is -- she's lost the most. >> when you talk to my other mom, she sent a letter just for you. >> what did she say? >> it's a secret just between mothers. i'm not even allowed to look at it. >> i have two moms. si. i've had an amazing life. very fortunate. but you always wonder about that one little piece of you.

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