Texas Mom Who Made Healthy Son Have 13 Unnecessary Surgeries, Pleads Guilty

 – Written By @DanielleBTV 

A Texas mom has admitted to making her healthy son undergo unnecessary medical tests and procedures from 2009 to 2017, including 13 major surgeries.

Kaylene Bowen, 35, started taking her son, Christopher, to unneeded doctors’ appointments at just 11 days old, according to officials. Reports conclude that he visited the doctor 323 times.

By the time Christopher was 8-years-old, he had undergone more than a dozen major surgeries and was confined to a wheelchair, according to prosecutors. She allegedly also had the boy fitted with a feeding tube which went directly into his small intestine, a procedure which led to several serious infections, according to Newsweek.  To top it off, the woman even tried to get him on the lung transplant list.

Over the years, Bowen had launched fundraisers for Christopher’s medical bills, even claiming that he was dying from a rare genetic disorder and had cancer, according to reports.

Authorities say that the crimes Bowen committed appear to fit the description of people with ‘Munchausen syndrome by proxy,’ a rare psychological disorder in which a caregiver lies or exaggerates a child’s medical symptoms to get attention and sympathy.

The boy and his two-half siblings were removed from Bowen’s care in 2017 after Dallas hospital staff reported to Child Protective Services that Christopher didn’t have cancer or any of the other alleged symptoms that his mother insisted he had.

Bowen pleaded guilty Thursday in a Dallas County court to recklessly causing injury to her son, who is now 10 years old, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Christopher’s father, Ryan Crawford, now has custody of him and he is no longer in a wheelchair.  He says that Christopher is very athletic and does well academically. He also says the boy has no medical issues and has only needed to go to the doctor for physicals.

Bowen now faces up to 20 years in prison, and she is set to be sentenced October 11.