English woman kept her absolutely healthy daughter in a wheelchair for 8 years

The court ruled that the mother's actions caused significant harm to the girl's health.

The mother convinced the doctors that her absolutely healthy child was disabled, writes The Daily Mail. The girl was provided with a wheelchair. Doctors prescribed artificial nutrition and pills for epileptic seizures. For 8 years, the child was undergoing medication that she did not need and moved in a wheelchair even to school. The High Court found that the deception had lasted so long because the mother kept telling doctors the stories she had invented about her daughter's epileptic seizures and that the girl could not eat or drink on her own.

Judge Judd found that significant damage was done to the child's health because the mother exaggerated the abnormalities in her behavior and symptoms. Back in October, a judge listened to witnesses and examined evidence from a private hearing at London's High Court of Family Affairs and published her verdict online. The Inspectorate for Juvenile Affairs accused the mother of misleading doctors about her daughter's condition and behavior. According to them, the mother convinced the doctors that the girl was suffering from uncontrolled epileptic seizures and autism, as well as other diseases.

The mother pleaded not guilty, but Judge Judd ruled against her. By law, the names of the mother and child, as well as their place of residence, are not disclosed.

Many doctors and juvenile affairs officers were involved in the case, but the mother constantly told new and new fictional stories about her daughter's condition in such a way that the case rolled like a snowball, the judge said. She was unable to establish why the mother portrayed her child so problematic. The mother said in court that the girl - one of the triplets, and the other two grew up without any problems - has been suffering from seizures since a year and a half. However, the judge found that since 2012, the mother began to invent new symptoms. Beginning in 2013, she informed doctors about new serious health problems for her daughter: seizures, nosebleeds, bowel and bladder problems, chronic fatigue and nausea that prevent her from walking on her own. At the end of 2013, the girl was discharged from a wheelchair, it became known from the materials of the court.

Doctors prescribed a new higher dosage of drugs, and in 2017 the girl was transferred to a special diet and fed through a tube. In early 2018, the girl was summoned to the hospital to have her tube replaced. There, the doctors saw what stress the child is under. Since then, there have been suspicions that the mother is deliberately overstating her daughter's medication.

In October 2019, the girl was taken from the family. Then it was discovered that the child is absolutely healthy. The judge writes in the motivation section that “the girl turned out to be an absolutely normal energetic child. The contrast between the way her mother described it since 2012 and the way she presented herself to social workers was enormous”.

For several months the girl has now been living with relatives.

Judge Judd stated that the child was treated while her mother was going through a difficult divorce, but she could get a second chance if she admits that the girl is healthy.