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Factitious disorder imposed on self, also known as Munchausen syndrome, is a factitious disorder in which those affected feign or induce disease, illness, injury, abuse, or psychological trauma to draw attention, sympathy, or reassurance to themselves. Munchausen syndrome fits within the subclass of factitious disorder with predominantly physical signs and symptoms, but patients also have a history of recurrent hospitalization, travelling, and dramatic, extremely improbable tales of their past experiences. The term Munchausen syndrome derives its name from the fictional character Baron Munchausen.
Sir Samuel Roy Meadow is a British retired paediatrician infamous for facilitating several wrongful convictions of mothers for murdering their babies. He was awarded the Donald Paterson prize of the British Paediatric Association in 1968 for a study of the effects on parents of having a child in hospital. In 1977, he published an academic paper describing a phenomenon dubbed Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSbP). In 1980 he was awarded a professorial chair in paediatrics at St James's University Hospital, Leeds, and in 1998, he was knighted for services to child health.
Julie Gregory is an American author of Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood, an autobiographical account of the Münchausen syndrome by proxy abuse she suffered as a child.
A factitious disorder is a mental disorder in which a person, without a malingering motive, acts as if they have an illness by deliberately producing, feigning, or exaggerating symptoms, purely to attain a patient's role. People with a factitious disorder may produce symptoms by contaminating urine samples, taking hallucinogens, injecting fecal material to produce abscesses, and similar behaviour. The word factitious derives from the Latin word factītius, meaning "human-made".
Factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIA), also known as fabricated or induced illness by carers (FII) and first named as Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSbP) after Munchausen syndrome, is a mental health disorder in which a caregiver creates the appearance of health problems in another person, typically their child, and sometimes (rarely) when an adult simulates an illness in another adult partner. This might include altering test samples or injuring a child. The caregiver or partner then presents the person as being sick or injured. Permanent injury or death of the victim can occur as a result of the disorder. The behaviour might be motivated by the caregiver or partner seeking sympathy or attention.
Beverley Gail Allitt is an English serial killer who was convicted of murdering four infants, attempting to murder three others, and causing grievous bodily harm to a further six at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital, Lincolnshire, between February and April 1991. She committed the murders as a State Enrolled Nurse on the hospital's children's ward.
Marybeth Roe Tinning is an American murderer and suspected serial killer who was convicted in New York State of the murder of her ninth child, 4-month-old daughter Tami Lynne, on December 20, 1985. She is suspected to be similarly involved in the previous deaths of her eight children, all of which took place within the span of fourteen years.
An angel of mercy or angel of death is a type of criminal offender who is usually employed as a medical practitioner or a caregiver and intentionally harms or kills people under their care. The angel of mercy is often in a position of power and may decide the victim would be better off if they no longer suffered from whatever severe illness is plaguing them. This person then uses their knowledge to kill the victim. In some cases, as time goes on, this behavior escalates to encompass the healthy and the easily treated.
Eunice Spry is a British woman from Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, a Jehovah's Witness who was convicted of 26 charges of child abuse against children in her foster care in April 2007. She was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment and ordered to pay £80,000 costs. In sentencing, the judge told Spry that it was the "worst case in his 40 years practising law".
A Child's Cry for Help is a 1994 American made-for-television drama film starring Pam Dawber and Veronica Hamel, with a supporting role by a young Tobey Maguire.
Wendi Michelle Scott is a Frederick, Maryland mother of two who was charged on November 16, 2007, with sickening her four-year-old daughter in a case of Münchausen syndrome by proxy.
Wendy Scott was considered one of the most notable cases of Münchausen syndrome on record, in part because of the severity of her condition and in part because she was a rare case of complete recovery from the syndrome, which many doctors consider untreatable.
Garnett-Paul Thompson Spears was a 5-year-old boy who died at a hospital in suburban Valhalla, New York. He was murdered by his mother, Lacey Spears, who injected him with high levels of sodium, leading to swelling in his brain.
Clauddine "Dee Dee" Blanchard was a 48-year-old woman who was found stabbed to death in her Springfield, Missouri, house in June 2015. She was murdered by Nicholas Godejohn. The murder was planned by her daughter, Gypsy-Rose Blanchard.
Munchausen is a 2014 American silent short horror film written and directed by Ari Aster. The film stars Liam Aiken as a boy about to go off to college, and Bonnie Bedelia as his overprotective mother who goes to great lengths to keep him from leaving her.
Olivia K. Gant was a 7-year-old American girl who died after ongoing medical abuse by her mother, Kelly Renee Turner-Gant, in what was deemed to be a case of Munchausen by proxy. Turner-Gant had initially taken the girl to the hospital for a case of severe constipation; after this was treated successfully and Gant was sent home, Turner-Gant claimed that Gant was unable to consume food, leading to numerous surgeries, the implementation of feeding tubes, and finally an intravenous tube that fed nutrients directly into her veins. The constant hospital visits and surgeries left Gant at times in a wheelchair and bedridden, weakened by an anti-seizure medication that Turner-Gant had convinced a doctor to prescribe her. Gant's death occurred after Turner-Gant swapped Gant's usual doctors, who had refused to sign a do not resuscitate order for the girl, for another doctor willing to sign the order. This allowed Turner-Gant to have all of Gant's feeding tubes removed. Gant was placed in hospice care, where she died from apparent intestinal failure on August 20, 2017. Turner-Gant, who by then went by the name Kelly Turner, was convicted in 2022 and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
The Shauna Taylor Case was a 2018 criminal trial involving the investigation and conviction of Shauna Dee Taylor, a Floridian housewife who had poisoned her prematurely-born infant daughter with Tylenol and iron supplements, causing acute liver damage due to iron poisoning, from which the child unexpectedly survived. The case rose to further prominence in 2019 when two of Shauna's then-grown adult children, Annie and Joshua Taylor, appeared publicly on the daytime talk show Dr. Phil, reporting that all 10 children documented as being under Shauna's care at one point or another, including themselves, had been subjected to severe physical, verbal and medical abuse. Shauna was diagnosed with Munchausen by proxy and convicted to 12 years in prison for aggravated child abuse, with 15 months of parole to follow.
The Exeter Law Courts is a Crown Court venue, which deals with criminal cases, as well as a County Court venue, which deals with civil cases, in Southernhay Gardens, Exeter, England.
On 23 November 2015, after being severely assaulted by his mother and her boyfriend the day before, two-year-old Mohamad Daniel Mohamad Nasser, who was a month short of his third birthday, was mortally wounded and died at his mother's rented flat in Telok Blangah Crescent. At the time of his death, Daniel sustained about 41 external injuries caused by the cruel abuse. Investigations and sources revealed that the couple had often beaten the boy, told him to stand in the living room or kitchen for hours as punishment, and even force-fed him dry chilli, and this abuse lasted for a month or so before Daniel died from a fatal head injury inflicted by the couple.
References
- 1 2 "Jailed, the cruel mum who faked her son's illness". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
- 1 2 3 4 "'Sadistic' mother jailed for abuse". Evening Standard. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
- 1 2 3 "Lisa Hayden-Johnson – Brixham". UK Database. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
- ↑ "Mother jailed for faking son's illness". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
- ↑ "Mother jailed for faking son's illness". BBC News. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
- ↑ "Mum jailed over 'most ill' child pretence". The Independent. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
- ↑ "Mother jailed for 'sickest boy in Britain' fantasy". Reuters. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
- ↑ "Sadistic mum who tortured her son for 6 years and pretended he was ill to get attention is jailed". Mirror. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
- ↑ "Jail for cruel Lisa Hayden-Johnson who faked child's illnesses for years". The Times. Retrieved 22 July 2024.