From palliative care to ‘doing fine’: mum accused of drugging child

A mum accused of drugging her child after the child was subjected to multiple surgeries had claimed she suffered a string of medical woes.

Police said the investigation was complicated and would take time.

In late September, a motherhood influencer from the Sunshine Coast posted a devastating update to her hundreds of thousands of TikTok followers.

“(My child’s) condition has not improved the way we were hoping for it to and the hospital has decided to move her into palliative care,” the woman wrote, captioning a video of her cradling her sleeping youngest child.

The toddler had a nasal feeding tube taped in place, with surgical stitches and a half-shaved head. In her 30s, and with young children, the woman had been painstakingly documenting her child’s diagnosis this year with a rare genetic disorder, seizures, a 100-hour coma, and two brain surgeries, pleading for donations to an online fundraiser.

But now police are investigating whether the woman – who has carefully crafted an online image of herself as a busy but wholesome every-mum with small biological children and a couple of extra kids under her care – had been secretly drugging her child, causing her mysterious illness.

Medical staff at the Queensland Children’s Hospital responsible for treating the child had raised the alarm, and police and child protection authorities acted swiftly, removing the toddler from her family on October 21.

The woman’s husband ­accused her of “drugging” their child to cause the symptoms, and insisted he had no idea what she was doing. “You’re an absolute monster,” he posted on Snapchat. “You win.”

This week, police confirmed the child is now out of hospital and “doing fine”, a remarkable turnaround given the alleged prognosis her mother had shared just two months ago.

Acting Chief Superintendent Andrew Pilotto urged patience, warning the investigation was complicated and protracted.

Sources have told The Weekend Australian that the child had presented with what appeared to be a genuine genetic disease, but ongoing and unexplained symptoms led medical staff to fear the toddler’s spiralling illnesses might be a case of the rare psychiatric disorder Munchausen syndrome by proxy, also known as fabricated and induced illness in children (FIIC). The condition occurs when a caregiver fakes, exaggerates or induces an illness in their child. A 2021 article in the Royal Australasian College of Physicians’ Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health notes that almost all – 98 per cent – of reported perpetrators of FIIC are women and are the mother of the victim.

The offenders are often pathological liars, and about one-third have a history of fabricating their own illnesses; caregivers in these situations are trying to satisfy a “psychological need” or material gain, the authors report.

“This may include a need for attention and sympathy (such as from friends, family or social media groups); a need to be viewed positively as a self-sacrificing martyr; a desire to manipulate professionals; a desire for ­excitement derived from engagement with the medical system; or to ­enable continued closeness to the child,” the 2021 journal ­article said.

The Weekend Australian is not suggesting that the TikTok influencer has caused her child’s illness, only that it is being investigated. The woman’s lawyer, Brisbane-based Mathew Cuskelly, declined to comment until the police investigation was finished and they had “made a decision in accordance with their prosecutorial guidelines”.

“Respectfully, desist from contacting our client for further comment,” Mr Cuskelly said, adding that nothing in his statement was “an admission of any liability or allegation”.

As investigators continue to examine the child’s medical records, pattern of illnesses, and the mother’s behaviour, The Weekend Australian has discovered that the woman has a history of making unproven claims about her own alleged medical woes.

In one social media clip uploaded earlier this year, before her child’s diagnosis, the influencer invited viewers to “get ready with me” as she did her make-up. She told her followers about a routine tonsil operation that went terribly wrong.

“When I was 16, I woke up during surgery while they were operating on me,” she said, liquid foundation rolling down her face. She said the situation “traumatised” her for years, but medical staff at the time were unable to say why she awoke.

“I had had a previous operation,” she continued. “I got a ­tumour out of my neck when I was a child.

“I went under then, so it wasn’t, like, a ‘me’ thing. It was definitely a ‘them’ thing.

“Has this happened to anyone before, or just me?”

In her mid-20s, the woman was a member of an evangelical church on the Sunshine Coast. She was filmed telling awed ­parishioners that her stage 5 chronic kidney disease – requiring hours of dialysis three times a week and a future transplant – had been healed by God and the church’s charismatic head pastor.

“I could feel the presence of God working inside me … I strongly believe that through the healing power of God I will not need to get a kidney transplant.”

After her child’s diagnosis, the woman told her followers she ­believed she had saved her child’s life because she had pushed so hard for doctors to take her ­seriously. The influencer said she was traumatised by her child’s ­experience.

“Honestly, I am still healing, I am struggling every day.”