FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas woman is jailed on charges related to allegations that she subjected her young son to more than a dozen unnecessary surgeries and hundreds of unneeded hospital visits.
Kaylene Bowen-Wright, 34, is in the Dallas County Jail on a charges of injury to a child with serious bodily injury, according to the Forth Worth Star-Telegram.
Bowen-Wright is accused of subjecting her 8-year-old son Christopher Bowen to 13 surgeries and 323 hospital visits starting after he was born in 2009, the newspaper reported.
The boy has been placed on oxygen, used a wheelchair at times and underwent invasive procedures, including insertion of a feeding tube, in his short life.
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Munchausen by proxy: Mom arrested after son has 323 hospital visits, 13 surgeries https://t.co/JcngEs57Vq pic.twitter.com/YHYhVcVMqs
— KYTX CBS19 (@kytxcbs19) December 13, 2017
Texas Child Protective Services also confirmed Bowen-Wright tried to get her son on a lung transplant list and had placed him in hospice care at one point.
Doctors and CPS agents eventually determined there was nothing wrong with the child and placed him in foster care, along with two half siblings, according to KTVT.
Bowen-Wright’s behavior could be related to a disorder known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental health issue in which a caregiver invents or causes an illness.
The boy's father, Ryan Crawford, who was ordered by a Texas court to stay away from the boy in 2012 because he didn't believe all the illness claims by Bowen-Wright, told KTVT he's trying to get custody of his son. Crawford is also critical of the doctors and courts that allowed the boy to undergo such abuse for so long before it was stopped.
“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,” he said.
Bowen-Wright’s bail was set at $150,000.
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