Oklahoma mother found guilty of child abuse after faking son’s illnesses for years

A jury final week found an Oklahoma mother guilty of two counts of child abuse after faking her son’s illnesses for yr, in what consultants testified was seemingly a case of Munchausen syndrome by proxy.

The jury handed down the decision on Nov. 17 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma. Federal prosecutors alleged that Kasie Keys spent years falsely claiming that her son, born in 2009, had hassle consuming and was terminally unwell.

Experts testified that Keys seemingly suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, NBC affiliate KFOR of Oklahoma City reported.

The situation manifests when “the caretaker of a child, most often a mother, either makes up fake symptoms or causes real symptoms to make it look like the child is sick,” according to the National Institute of Health.

Court paperwork state that following Keys’ 2012 divorce from the boy’s father, she started telling her son’s docs that he was having hassle consuming, utilizing his arms, talking and controlling his bowels.

The boy’s father didn’t observe these signs, however physicians started diagnosing and treating the boy primarily based on his mother’s reviews, based on court docket paperwork. The boy was finally placed on a feeding tube.

Later, the child was placed on a complete parenteral vitamin routine, which consists of “liquid nutrients that is given to the patient through the veins intravenously and bypasses the stomach and intestines” and requires upkeep by caregivers, court docket paperwork state.

Keys saved the boy on that feeding routine for practically 4 years and failed so as to add the required nutritional vitamins and minerals to it, based on court docket paperwork. As a outcome, her son to be hospitalized for malnourishment and hair loss, amongst different points.

She additionally failed to keep up his hygiene, placing him in danger of an infection and leaving him in double diapers full of urine and feces, prosecutors alleged. This led to his hospitalization for yeast in his blood, urinary tract an infection and bacterial infections.

The trial adopted an October 2021 indictment by a grand jury on six counts of child abuse and two counts of child neglect, to which Keys pleaded not guilty, court docket paperwork present.

The jury found Keys not guilty on the 2 expenses of child neglect — which, based on the indictment, alleged that she failed to keep up the boy’s feeding routine and hygiene — and declared a mistrial on the opposite 4 expenses of child abuse.

Notes from the foreperson filed with the court docket seem to point the jury struggled to achieve a verdict, twice asking the decide what they need to do if they might not come to an unanimous determination.

Child abuse in Oklahoma is punishable by up to life in jail.

Information on Keys’ sentencing was not instantly out there.