DALLAS — A Texas woman was arrested after allegedly taking her healthy son to the hospital 323 times and making him undergo 13 major surgeries over the last eight years, according to The Star-Telegram.
Kaylene Bowen was arrested on Dec. 6 and charged with injury to a child. The 34-year-old woman claimed her 8-year-old son Christopher was dying from a rare genetic disorder and was in need of a transplant due to lung cancer, according to CBS DFW.
Christopher’s father, Ryan Crawford, said he tried to convince family court judges that his son was not sick, but they sided with Bowen.
The 8-year-old had been placed full-time on oxygen and sometimes used a wheelchair. He was also fitted with a feeding tube, which led to life-threatening blood infections.
The Dallas hospital staff eventually determined Christopher did not have cancer or several of the alleged symptoms, and officials removed Christopher and his two half-siblings from Bowen’s care last month.
“It’s horrible for my son, or any kid because obviously, my son is not the only one that has had to go through this type of torture,” Crawford said. “The system has to be exposed — all the weaknesses that are in the system — because the kids don’t deserve that.”
According to the report, it is believed that Bowen has Munchausen by proxy, which is a complex in which a person repeatedly exaggerates medical symptoms to get attention.
Bowen is behind bars on a $150,000 secured bond. Her attorney, public defender Christi Bustos, has not publicly commented on the case, according to the Associated Press.