From: gemini23x@gmail.com   
      
   Beyond Gypsy Blancharde: When Mothers Harm Their Kids for Attention   
   A look inside five cases of Munchausen's syndrome by proxy, a rare and   
   terrifying disorder where parents fake their children's illness   
      
      
   Beyond Gypsy Blancharde: When Mothers Harm Their Kids for Attention   
   For years, Dee Dee Blancharde (right) faked her daughter Gypsy's illness.    
      
   By Bryn Lovitt   
   August 31, 2016   
      
      
   Before her murder, Dee Dee Blancharde reveled in the world's pity. By 2015,   
   the 48-year-old mother from Missouri had managed to convince just about every   
   Make-a-Wish-sized charity that her wheelchair-ridden daughter Gypsy Rose was   
   dying of natural causes.   
    This month, Buzzfeed published a detailed report of the 2015 murder,   
   introducing readers to one of psychology's most controversial conditions:   
   Munchausen's syndrome by proxy, an extremely divisive "syndrome" that many   
   consider to be one of the most    
   dangerous forms of child abuse. Throughout her life, Blancharde fed Gypsy   
   seizure medication, shaved her tiny head, and confined the growing child to a   
   wheelchair for years – all so that Gypsy would appear ill. Petite and   
   toothless, Gypsy Rose was her    
   mother's cash cow. So when the small, sickly girl emerged from her wheelchair   
   to take knife-wielding selfies shortly before posting "The bitch is dead!" on   
   Facebook, her actions begged the question, was the killing of Dee Dee   
   Blancharde an act of self-   
   defense from years of sadistic abuse, or cold, premeditated murder?   
      
   Children raised by mothers with Munchausen's by proxy live through   
   unfathomable abuse and manipulation. In 2003, Arizona mother Blanca Montano   
   was caught on tape contaminating her infant daughter's IV with fecal matter.   
   In 2009, former chemist Hope    
   Ybarra drained her daughter's blood with a syringe and faked tests for cystic   
   fibrosis. Just two years ago, Lacey Spears was convicted of murder in the   
   second degree after slowly poisoning her five-year-old son with lethal amounts   
   of salt. People with    
   Munchausen's syndrome typically feign their own illnesses. Munchausen's by   
   proxy, however, is when the caregiver (predominantly adult females with a   
   history of abuse) intentionally sickens their patient to maintain sympathy and   
   attention. Gypsy Rose    
   narrowly escaped her mother's torture by enlisting her boyfriend, Nick   
   Godejohn, to stab her to death, but other victims are not so lucky. Here, five   
   other fascinating court cases that have linked Munchausen's by proxy to   
   intense sickness – and even    
   homicide.   
   Lacey Spears   
   Ricky Flores/AP 1/5   
   Lacey Spears   
   When mommy blogger Lacey Spears was convicted for the murder of her beloved   
   five-year-old son Garnett, thousands of Spears' social media followers were   
   absolutely shocked. For years prior, the young Kentucky mother had taken to   
   the Internet for support    
   by documenting Garnett's various health struggles. Lacey exhaustively blogged   
   Garnett's medical journey, all the while hiding the one thing that was keeping   
   him sick: unbeknownst to Lacey's faithful supporters, she had been secretly   
   poisoning the child    
   with life-threatening doses of salt through a feeding tube.   
      
   In the winter of 2014, Garnett passed away in a New York hospital from toxic   
   amounts of sodium in his bloodstream. Detectives were sent to Spears' home   
   where they discovered Garnett's medications tucked behind a large can of salt.   
   It was then revealed    
   that Spears had asked a neighbor to enter their home and dispose of Garnett's   
   feeding bag which was allegedly filled with the equivalent of 69 packets of   
   salt.    
      
   After a highly publicized two-week trial, Spears was sentenced 2   
   -years-to-life for the second degree murder of Garnett. The New York   
   prosecutors called her actions, "nothing short of torture." Death by salt   
   poisoning is extremely painful, and Garnett    
   spent his last days screaming in agony (the hospital-room videos are   
   disturbing) before the decision was made to take him off of life support. The   
   defense blamed the hospital for both the elevated levels of sodium in   
   Garnett's blood and his subsequent    
   death. Spears maintains her innocence and vehemently insists that she does not   
   have Munchausen's Syndrome by proxy. Obviously, the judge thought otherwise,   
   citing "mental illness she refuses to acknowledge."   
   Blanca Montano   
   2/5   
   Blanca Montano   
   In 2011, 23-year-old Blanca Montano of Tuscon, Arizona was sentenced to   
   thirteen years in prison after allegedly infecting her hospitalized infant   
   daughter with foreign bacterias, including fecal matter. Months before   
   Montano's arrest, her two young    
   children tested positive for E. Coli, a dangerous bacteria found in human   
   waste. While her eldest son had a normal recovery, Montano's seven month-old   
   daughter continued to fall suspiciously ill, contracting infection after   
   infection. Over the girl's    
   month-long hospital stay, doctors treated her for nine rare and unusual   
   infections that placed her in intensive care. Determined to keep up the ruse,   
   Montano demanded they administer a completely unnecessary bone marrow biopsy.   
      
   Once the medical team realized they could be dealing with a case of   
   Munchausen's Syndrome by proxy, a camera was installed in the infant's   
   hospital room to monitor the mother's behavior while she was alone with her.   
   What they found was horrifying. Not    
   only was Montano caught on tape contaminating the baby's IV by sticking it   
   into her own mouth, but she brazenly acknowledged the camera as she attempted   
   to cover its lens. According to a witness, Montano was seen throughout the   
   hospital carrying syringes    
   in her purse.   
      
   The police alerted Child Protective Services, who quickly prohibited Montano   
   from visiting her daughter in the southern Arizona hospital. As suspected, the   
   little girl's health began to improve significantly. Montano continues to   
   maintain her innocence    
   while the prosecution argued she kept the child sick in an attempt to win back   
   the attention of the baby's father.    
   Hope Ybarra   
   Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Getty 3/5   
   Hope Ybarra   
      
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