Sophie Hartman, a white foster mom in Renton, Washington, has been charged in an investigation of “medical child abuse.” According to Q13 Fox, medical staff and investigators suggest that Hartman exaggerated her 6-year-old Black daughter’s illnesses, forcing the young child to attend over 474 medical appointments. The child also had a feeding tube surgically implanted, which doctors told Hartman were “unnecessary medical procedures.”
In 2018, Hartman publicly claimed in a video clip for Make A Wish Foundation that her daughter had alternating hemiplegia of childhood (AHC), a rare disease affecting the body’s neurological development.
“For us, this is what life looks like. It’s navigating constant traumatic chaos, making plans that will inevitably fall through and battling resentment and bitterness for all that is outside of our control,” the 31-year-old said about her daughter’s alleged illness.
A Renton mother is under criminal investigation for “medical child abuse,” a case in which prosecutors say is something they haven’t seen in recent memory. https://t.co/jnt13EPB5l
— Q13 FOX Seattle (@Q13FOX) May 25, 2021
Court documents state that she subjected her child to nearly 500 medical appointments since she was only 2-years-old, and has since forced her to undergo an “unnecessary medical procedure,” doctors say.
In addition to having a feeding tube, the young girl was also made to have a cecostomy tube implanted to flush out her intestines and wear a leg brace, all of which medical staff informed the mother was unnecessary, Q13 Fox reported.
An unnamed doctor at Seattle Children’s Hospital revealed their belief that the child wasn’t suffering from AHC, as she wasn’t exhibiting severe seizures or any other known symptoms from the rare disease, according to Q13 Fox.
But after her daughter was taken from Hartman’s home in March, medical staff observed during her two-week stay in a local Washington hospital that she wasn’t exhibiting any of the symptoms her foster mom had mentioned before.
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According to Q13 Fox, court documents stated, “At no point during her admission were there any findings or reported symptoms to support any of her prior diagnoses. All the available evidence obtained during the course of her admission suggests (redacted) is a [healthy] young 6-year-old,”
Believing that Hartman either exaggerated or completely fabricated her daughter’s health concerns, investigators have charged her with second-degree assault of a child and second-degree attempted assault of a child, Q13 Fox reports.
They also discovered an incriminating diary entry from the foster mom, allegedly stating, “when it comes to suffering, I am a compulsive liar/exaggerator.”
