Munchausen by Proxy Murder

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in ER.

I just finished the Hulu miniseries The Act. It is a fascinating and well done show about a girl who was medically abused by her mother.

The mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, hoodwinked medical doctors, charity organizations, and neighbors. She kept her daughter in a wheelchair for years. She had medical procedures done on her daughter based on her lies.

She exerted utter control over her daughter, even into her young adult years. She shaved her daughter's head,  to make it look as if she was a cancer patient. She collected thousands and thousands of dollars in charity, and got a free house from Habitat for Humanity.

What is the medical community doing to prevent this sort of tragedy? I'm sure there are other cases of this type of insane behavior. Gypsy Lee Blanchard finally snapped and recruited a mentally unbalanced young man, who stabbed her mother to death.

 

1 Votes
Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

Oh yeah - there's been lots of documentaries about that. Crazy story.

 

0 Votes
Specializes in ER.
45 minutes ago, klone said:

Oh yeah - there's been lots of documentaries about that. Crazy story.

 

I had viewed a Kendal Rae true crime episode about the case, but this miniseries really went in depth. The acting was superb. 

Hopefully this will make the medical community more cautious when being given information by caregivers. It's amazing how Dee Dee Blanchard fooled so many people for so long!

1 Votes
Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

I'll have to check out that specific miniseries. My 14yo is fascinated by the case also.

I feel like the documentaries probably didn't go too far in depth on the mother's abuse, and focused more on the murder, painting Gypsy Lee in a poorer light than she probably deserved.

0 Votes
Specializes in ER.
1 hour ago, klone said:

I'll have to check out that specific miniseries. My 14yo is fascinated by the case also.

I feel like the documentaries probably didn't go too far in depth on the mother's abuse, and focused more on the murder, painting Gypsy Lee in a poorer light than she probably deserved.

I'm sure she became extremely warped growing up the way she did. When she was older she realized that they were scamming people but was so under her mother's control. It's kind of like the Stockholm syndrome.

I finished the mini-series this morning and watch the Dr Phil interview of her in prison. It's a very good interview.

This miniseries really made me feel like the young man who did the deed got too much time. He had some serious mental illness issues according to the miniseries. Apparently he had multiple personalities.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

Okay, my wife and I are now thoroughly hooked. I think we just finished the 4th or 5th episode.

0 Votes
Specializes in ER.
3 hours ago, klone said:

Okay, my wife and I are now thoroughly hooked. I think we just finished the 4th or 5th episode.

It's definitely bingeworthy...

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Specializes in OB.

Watch "Mommy Dead and Dearest"!  Same case, really well done.  I thought the documentarians were very fair to Gypsy Lee.  

Perhaps this was also in the series y'all watched, I'm not sure--one of the most baffling/infuriating parts of "Mommy Dead and Dearest" was that as a young child, one of Gypsy's zillions of doctors wrote in his consult note, almost as an aside, that he thought she was suffering from Munchausen's by proxy.  No one either noticed or cared, and he didn't do anything else.  He considered those few lines in his consult his due diligence, and after that it had nothing to do with him.  Made me realize how differently (some, not all) physicians, particularly specialists, are socialized to just stay in their silos.  Whereas I feel like the concept of collaborative care is ingrained into nursing so much more.  

Interesting and heartbreaking story all around.

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