In the United States, a mother has been accused of inventing her son’s incurable disease. She is said to be suffering from Münchhasen syndrome by proxy.
The sham lasted for almost three years. In the United States, a woman from Arkansas has been charged with lying about her son’s state of health. From 2017 to 2019, Kristy Schneider claimed that her baby boy, whom she adopted in 2014, had an incurable genetic disease, report the New York Post and ABC7. She even asked doctors for treatment and treatment to relieve her pain, including the prescription of powerful narcotics such as morphine.
On Facebook, the adoptive mother had opened a page (now closed) where she regularly published news of the child. She publicly spoke of her son’s suffering and took the opportunity to make appeals for donations.
Also according to the New York Post and ABC7, in February 2019, Kristy Schneider and her husband sought end-of-life care for the boy. The couple said that the child would soon die and he arranged for the police to make him a guard of honor on the road to a palliative care center. After a month, however, the young boy was released from the hospital.
Child custody withdrawn
Doctors eventually found out that he was not in as much pain as his mother claimed. They warned the authorities, warning about the strange behavior of Kristy Schneider. Custody of the child was withdrawn from him during the year 2019. The boy’s condition then improved markedly. The investigation showed that since he was no longer receiving unnecessary care, he was able to walk and eat normally. He therefore did not need to be in a wheelchair or to be artificially fed.
On August 2, 2021, an arrest warrant was filed against him for endangering the life of a minor in the first degree. She surrendered and was released on bail.
Münchhasen syndrome by proxy
When she lost custody of her child, the investigation determined that Kristy Schneider suffered from Münchhasen syndrome by proxy. This disorder, introduced by British pediatrician Samuel Roy Meadow in 1977, is characterized by a parent’s need to exaggerate, invent or cause illness in the child, in order to gain attention.
The child undergoes numerous medical tests, without the doctors finding the cause of his suffering. His condition improves as soon as he moves away from the implicated parent.
This syndrome, known to the public thanks to the Netflix series “The Politician”, remains difficult to diagnose. Healthcare professionals often have difficulty determining whether the child is really sick or whether it is the parent’s imagination.
Kristy Schneider’s case is not, however, an isolated case. Even in France, there are similar stories. In 2018, a woman was sentenced to 13 years in prison by the Assize Court of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, for having tried to kill her 7-month-old son and suffocated her 2-year-old daughter, with the sole aim of attracting the compassion indicates the Parisian. A psychiatrist has since diagnosed him with Münchhausen syndrome by proxy. In 2013, in Cahors (Occitanie), another mother received a two-year suspended prison sentence for poisoning her child with very powerful drugs. Here too, the experts have concluded to Münchhausen syndrome by proxy, as reported The Dispatch.
Elise Poiret
Journalist specializing in parenthood, Elise writes for aufeminin and Parole de mamans. She is also very involved in the fight for women’s rights. If you only have to remember …