Lisa Hayden-Johnson
Lisa’s son was born prematurely, so he needed feeding tubes and constant medical attention. His mother Lisa loved the attention she got as the mother of an ill child. This is one of the aspects of Munchausen by Proxy, a condition where the parent, usually the mother, makes a child sick to gain attention and often monetary gain. The greatest fear of these mothers is that their child will get well.
When Lisa’s son began to get better, she decided to try convincing everyone that her child was still deathly ill. She went on television and told everyone that her son had severe food allergies; therefore, he was unable to eat and had to have a feeding tube inserted. To convince people her son had diabetes, she would put glucose in his urine. She said he also had cerebral palsy and cystic fibrosis which confined him to a wheelchair. She was so convincing that she not only had her son convinced he was sick, but she also had the doctor’s convinced, which lead to 325 operations and invasive medical procedures. She also claimed her son was sensitive to sunlight, so she made him wear sunglasses and a hat to school. The hat was always in bright colors because she wanted him to be able to be readily seen and rescued in case anything happened at school. It wouldn’t do to have the source of all her attention and money to get truly injured in any way and taken to a hospital where she would not be in control of how her son was looked at.
This is where I get confused with any story of Munchausen by Proxy story. How were these women able to convince medical professionals that their child had cerebral palsy and cystic fibrosis? Don’t these conditions require tests to help with such a diagnosis?
The attention Lisa received was wide-spread. From donations, she got a new car, cash, and a free cruise. She was also able to receive disability payments for her son, which was probably not her main motivation, but it allowed her to not have to work and to be able to monitor who her son encountered. It would not do to have someone get too close to him and become suspicious.
After much lobbying by his mother, her son received a Children of Courage award and met both Tony Blair and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. Her son was considered “the sickest child in Britain.” For a sick kid, her son got around. When she was finally caught, the police found a video tape of that free cruise. In it, the boy was seen running around the pool and eating all regular food. It’s amazing what the sea air can do.
Soon her very carefully crafted con came tumbling down when, in 2007, a pediatrician became suspicious of the fact that there did not seem to be a clear diagnosis, so he examined all the boy’s medical files. He demanded further tests on her son. To postpone these tests, on the day they were to be performed, Lisa claimed she had been sexually assaulted. While speaking to the police about the assault, she eventually confessed to the entire scheme.Her plan backfired.
Prosecutor Andrew Macfarlane said, 'The defendant organized, orchestrated and ensured a regime of medical, physiological and psychological mistreatment, amounting to 24-hour-a-day torture that touched on every aspect of his young vulnerable life.” Lisa received 39 months in prison and her son went to live with his father and is said to be a happy and healthy little boy. This is another aspect of Munchausen; when the children are not with their mothers, they seem to miraculously recover, as if nothing was wrong with them in the first place.
Kathy Bush
Jennifer became a poster child for health reform and met Hilary Rodham Clinton at the White House; she even testified before Congress about these reforms. The nurses who tended Jennifer were confused by the letters written to the Clintons since Jennifer never went to school and her writing was on the kindergarten level.
Kathy told the media that her family was penniless and wrote to the White House that sometimes they had to decide between medicine for Jennifer and food for the family. The family would also have financial problems because their health insurance dropped them when Jennifer began to have medical issues.
The problem with this image of the destitute family was that at home there was a new Mustang and motorcycle in the driveway and the family was taking vacations at expensive resorts. It seems the cash she solicited was not going to either food or medicine.
Meanwhile, nurses were beginning to talk. Often Jennifer seemed to be getting better until her mother arrived and drew the curtain to be alone with her daughter. Nurses often heard Jennifer saying “no, no” when alone with her mother. One nurse even saw Kathy squirting liquid into her daughter’s mouth. Jennifer's numerous baffling infections were "consistent with someone smearing fecal matter" into her feeding line and urinary catheter.
Finally, in 1996, a nurse filed a complaint, and Kathy Bush was charged with fraudulently soliciting money and assault. Jennifer was transferred to another hospital and within a short time, she was eating and had her feeding tube removed. She was put into foster care and her health improved dramatically.
In 1999, Kathy was convicted of aggravated child abuse. She served three years of a five-year sentence. She was also forbidden from having contact with her daughter.
When Jennifer was 18, she petitioned the court to lift the ban on her seeing her mother. Jennifer now says she believes that her mother did not harm her at all.
In a written statement to the Sun Sentinel in early 2015, Jennifer wrote:
The 10 years I spent in foster care were traumatic, and I had some devastating things happen to me. [ . . . ] Today, I can proudly say we have flourished despite the devastating separation. The bond I had with my brothers, prior to being removed from my family, is something that never changed. My relationship with them helped carry me through my years in foster care. My parents and I have picked up from where we left off, and have a very close and loving relationship.
Lacy Spears
Garnet Spears spent his first five years on this earth suffering from numerous digestive issues. They were so severe that finally a feeding tube was inserted into his little body. His mother, Lacy Spears, was a former nursing student who used social media to document Garnet’s journey through doctor visits and hospital stays. Often, Munchausen by Proxy mothers have some medical knowledge. Like what often happens, the people in the social media rallied around her and Garnet.
In January 2014, Garnet was again admitted to the hospital; this time his sodium levels were sky high. At this point, the hospital became suspicious and called the police and Child Protective Services. As this little boy was in tremendous pain and slowly dying, his mother was not holding his hand and trying to soothe him; she was on Facebook and her own blog updating people on the boy’s condition and receiving the sympathy of her readers. There were videos that showed that Garnet was screaming in pain before the machines were finally turned off. On the 22nd of January, Garnet was declared brain dead and his mother had the life support turned off.
The police searched Lacy and Garnet’s home and found sea salt and two feeding bags that
During her 2-week trial, the prosecutor said that her treatment of her son was “nothing short of torture.” The defense blamed the hospital for the sodium poisoning. She was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years. The judge said she suffered from Munchausen’s by proxy and made her son sick just to bask in the attention the mother of a sick child gets.
Blanca Montano
It is February 2011 when Blanca Montano rushed her two children to the hospital. It was determined that they both had E. coli. Luckily her son was able to be treated and released, but her 5-month-old daughter was not so lucky.
She was transferred to intensive care but continued to get one infection after another. The medical staff was confused as to the cause of these rare and unusual infections. They began to suspect that Blanca was tampering with her daughter’s IV, introducing things like fecal matter. As the doctors were trying to treat the infections, Blanca was insisting on a bone marrow biopsy.
Cameras were mounted in the child’s room and caught Blanca playing with the IV and covering the camera. The hospital felt they had enough evidence and brought in the police. Blanca was arrested and charged with one count of child abuse and forbidden to visit her daughter. The child slowing recovered and was released.Are you seeing a pattern here?
During her trial, the prosecutors said she had done this to gain attention and get back the affection of the children’s father. Nurses testified that syringes had been found in Blanca’s purse and that she said she was surprised people hadn’t called CPS before. Blanca was found guilty and sentenced to 13 years in prison. She continues to maintain she is innocent.
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