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Texas Mom Admits Putting Son Through 13 Unnecessary Surgeries And Dozens Of Other Medical Treatments
In a case with eerie parallels to the Gypsy Rose Blanchard story, Kaylene Bowen-Wright made her son use a wheelchair and undergo a rash of unneeded treatments.
A Texas mother has admitted to forcing her son to undergo 13 unneeded surgeries and dozens of medical texts and procedures.
Kaylene Bowen-Wright, 35, pleaded guilty Thursday to recklessly causing injury to her child, The Star-Telegram reports. She now faces up to two decades behind bars.
The mother was arrested in late 2017 after she claimed her 8-year-old son was dying from a rare genetic disorder, according to CBS DFW. At the time, she was trying to get help for a transplant she said he needed because he supposedly had lung cancer.
But, he didn’t have lung cancer or any of the other ailments that she took him to get treatment for throughout his young life. The boy and his two-half siblings were removed by Child Protective Services shortly before Bowen-Wright’s arrest after it was discovered that she was lying about the boy’s health issues.
Child Protective Services claimed the boy went to doctors and hospitals 323 times and underwent 13 major surgeries between 2009 and 2017, The Star-Telegram reports. The child also used a wheelchair for muscular dystrophy even though he had no ailment. The feeding tube he was given led to life-threatening blood infections in the child.
“I am happy that she decided to do the right thing. Eventually the lies had to stop,” the boy’s father, Ryan Crawford told The Star-Telegram regarding the guilty plea. “Now hopefully those who thought a mother could never do this to their child will see evil does exist.”
It is believed that Bowen-Wright may have Munchausen by proxy, a condition identified in the 1970s in which a caregiver fabricates health problems of the person they are caring for with the intent to gain sympathy and attention.
The most infamous case to date is probably that of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, whose mother Dee Dee allegedly forced her to undergo countless medical procedures and treatments including a wheelchair and a feeding tube. Blanchard is currently in prison for her role in her mother's murder.
Bowen-Wright is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 11.
