Today I have a special guest with me in the studio...
A client (I will not be using her name). We first met in May of this year, when, having recently moved to this area, she popped up to Wondrous Roots to see what we were all about. She happened to mention that where she lived before she was working with a practitioner who was helping her with her MTHFR genetic defects and subsequent difficulties with methylation. I told her she had come to the right place, as this is a specialty of mine.
When I was able to access her methylation genetic data, I was astounded. This client had the most complicated and crippling MTHFR (methyl tetrahydrofolate) genetic defect I had ever seen. Due to this, she had had multiple health problems throughout her life.
Her young daughter, almost three, had also suffered many health issues since birth. This led my client on a quest to find real answers within the medical system.
Finally, one of her daughter's pediatricians reported her to the state (DCYF) accusing her of Munchausen syndrome.
Munchausen syndrome, also known as factitious disorder imposed on self, refers to a psychiatric condition in which an individual intentionally presents with a physical or mental illness without actually having a health problem. In most cases, individuals with Munchausen syndrome are seeking the attention of being a "patient."
When it comes to a parent being accused of this syndrome regarding a child (Munchausen syndrome by proxy):
Munchausen syndrome by proxy is an unusual form of child abuse: a child presents with an illness that has been factitiously produced by a parent, typically the mother.
The child was taken into custody by DCYF.
I was asked to testify on behalf of my client when this went to trial in September. I poured over some 30 medical reports related to her child.
While on the stand, counsel for DCYF was outraged, and my testimony was stricken from the record. The state "won," and my client's child remains in state custody.
This isn't just happening to my client.
It is very scary.
And it is nearly impossible, I have learned, to find a lawyer willing to take on DCYF.
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