Girl left near death after being drugged by mother

A child developed a life-threatening infection after being repeatedly drugged by her mother, a judge has heard.

The unprescribed medication was administered for over a year and led to the girl requiring a long stay in a children’s hospital, being unable to eat or drink and requiring ten blood transfusions.

The judge ruled that her mother’s actions also caused the girl, now 15 years old, to suffer significant emotional and psychological harm.

Two other women accused at the same hospital around the same time of harming their children in the same way were found not to have done so after a family court hearing.

The children were all long-stay patients – often in the same ward – at Sheffield Children’s Hospital in 2020 and 2021.

They all came from separate, previously unrelated families, but developed unexplained medical problems that led to their mothers being arrested.

The women, who had all remained in the hospital with their children, were accused of making their children sick by administering unprescribed medications and deliberately contaminating their feeding lines with feces.

All the children recovered quickly after their mothers were arrested.

Reporting restrictions prevent the names of the families involved in the case from being mentioned.

All three children – the girl and two young boys, now aged five and six, presented with chronic digestive – gastroenterological – diseases and an apparent inability to eat and drink normally.

Each animal had to have lines inserted into a vein to deliver nutrients to keep them alive.

They had an exceptionally high rate of bacterial infections in their lines, leading to life-threatening sepsis.

Doctors at Sheffield Children’s Hospital were unable to understand why the children were so ill and eventually concluded that they may have been victims of fabricated or induced illness (FII).

This is described by the NHS as “a rare form of child abuse”, where a parent abuses a child or deliberately causes symptoms of illness.

It was suggested that each mother’s actions had resulted in multiple, avoidable medical interventions, prolonged hospital stays and each child’s near death.

The mothers of the two boys appeared not to have done this.

The girl’s mother, who has two other children, was arrested in February 2021 after a urine test on her daughter revealed the presence of ibuprofen, an anti-inflammatory drug, which had not been prescribed.

A police investigation found 96 ibuprofen tablets, laxatives, a feeding syringe and a pill crusher.

A 2023 hearing at the Family Court in Leeds, the judgment of which has only now been published, concluded that the woman, known as MR, administered non-prescription drugs to her daughter from September 2019 to February 2021.

She was given both ibuprofen and piroxicam, a strong painkiller. Although the girl was aware that her mother was giving her the drugs, she did not know what they were.

Judge Justice Poole concluded that taking the drugs had caused the teenager to suffer from abdominal pain and inflammation, nausea and vomiting, stomach ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding.

MR also gave her daughter the laxative Bisacodyl, which, according to the judge, led to recurring diarrhea.

The drugs caused the girl to undergo unnecessary medical procedures, including ten blood transfusions and surgery to stop the bleeding from the stomach ulcers.

She also had to have a stomach tube placed, lines inserted to allow feeding, and multiple endoscopies, where a camera is inserted into the body to examine a condition.

An investigation into the mother revealed that she herself had required periods of hospital treatment for symptoms that could never be fully medically explained, including ‘pseudo-seizures’, the authenticity of which was questioned by both doctors and her own family.

At the time of her arrest, she was repeatedly prescribed a strong painkiller for chronic back pain. She also had psychological problems.

The judge concluded that the relationship between mother and daughter became ‘very intense and unhealthy’ in hospital, made worse by Covid restrictions.

“The isolation and codependency… created a culture in which unusual and harmful behavior could develop,” the judge wrote.

Even after her mother’s arrest, the girl continued to use ibuprofen “in an attempt to make herself sick, to cover up for her mother,” he added.

In April 2021, the girl was released from the hospital into the care of her father and grandparents. She can eat normally and has had no further infections.

She goes to school, but still complains of abdominal pain and remains under the care of a pediatrician.

The other two mothers were arrested in October 2021. Searches of the rooms they used or had access to found no evidence to suggest they had harmed their children.

There was also no evidence, the judge said, that any of the three women had tampered with their children’s feeding lines.

He added that national guidelines for doctors had not been followed as they should have been. This meant that when the mothers were referred to social services and the police, the NHS trust had not collected the evidence it could have provided.

At the time, the “accepted narrative” at the Trust was that every mother was guilty of FII (forced or induced illness), he said.

Dr. Jeff Perring, executive medical director of Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This was a hearing on facts in the Family Court and, as the judgment makes clear, it was not an investigation into the conduct of the Trust and its doctors. .

“The 2021 Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health guidelines referred to in the judgment are fully enshrined in the Trust. Our policies and procedures are being reviewed to reflect learning and ensure they remain robust and reflect best practice.”