Munchausen’s mum put healthy son, 8, through THIRTEEN unnecessary operations, took him to GP hundreds of times and confined him to a wheelchair
A MUM with Munchausen’s put her healthy eight-year-old son through 13 unnecessary operations, took him to a GP hundreds of times and confined him to a wheelchair.
Kaylene Bowen, 35, convinced doctors that her son Christopher was terminally ill and publicly announced he had cancer on Facebook.
Bowen, from Dallas in Texas, was alleged to have had her son fitted with a feeding tube that fed directly into his small intestine and led to multiple life-threatening blood infections, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports.
She also said to have told medics her son would throw up every time he had milk because of an allergy.
JAIL TIME
Authorities also claim she’d tried to get him on the lung transplant list and had him in hospice care.
The mother publicised the cause widely on social media, launching crowdfunding pages to pay for the treatments, including one that raised more than £6,000.
In a message appealing to well-wishers, she claimed a congenital condition was “slowly taking the wind of of the sails of this bright and active boy”.
The defenceless child was seen 323 times at hospitals and paediatric centres in Dallas and Houston and underwent 13 major surgeries, all between 2009 and 2016.
Bowen, who also goes by the last name Wright, lost custody of Christopher and two younger half-siblings to Texas Child Protective Services in November 2017.
On Thursday she pleaded guilty to recklessly causing injury to a child and is due to be sentenced in October.
She faces two to 20 years in jail for second degree felony.
Munchausen's syndrome by proxy (MSBP)
According to the NHS, the condition which is also known as Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) is a rare form of child abuse.
The parent or carer, normally the child’s mum, will exaggerate or deliberately cause symptoms of illness in the child.
The signs of the condition can include persuading healthcare professionals that their child is ill when they’re perfectly healthy or lying about their child’s health problems and manipulating tests results to prove the presence of an illness.
This could include, for example, putting glucose in urine samples to suggest a child has diabetes.
A study in 2000 estimated there were 89 cases of MSBP in a population of 100,000 over a two-year period.
It is reported in more than 90 per cent of reported cases, the child’s mother is responsible for the abuse.
The NHS said it could be that the carer enjoys the attention of playing the role of a “caring mother”.
Many diagnosed cases have been linked to emotional instability, and unresolved psychological and behavioural problems such as a history of self-harm, or drug or alcohol abuse.
Some carers have experienced the death of a child.
‘EVIL DOES EXIST’
Experts say Munchausen syndrome by proxy is when the caregiver exaggerates or fabricates medical symptoms in a child in a bid to gain attention – sometimes resulting in the illness or even death of the child.
Christopher, now 10, has recovered from his mother’s abuse, is doing well at school and has become “very athletic,” his father Ryan Crawford told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Amazingly, he has no medical issues and only needs check-ups once a year.
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The father had always argued his son was not sick, but said family court judges always sided with the compulsively lying mother.
“I am happy that she decided to do the right thing. Eventually the lies had to stop,” Crawford told the site.
“Now hopefully those who thought a mother could never do this to their child will see evil does exist.”
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