Foster Mom Accused Of Seeking Unwanted Surgeries For Child Adopted From Zambia

A 31-year-old woman has been accused of subjecting her adopted child to "medically unnecessary surgical interventions and restraints."

King County prosecutors charged Sophie Hartman from Renton, Washington, with assault of a child and domestic violence, reports KIRO 7.

An investigation was launched against her in 2019 after doctors believed the child adopted from Zambia was being given unnecessary medical treatment upon the insistence of Hartman.

The child's care team, as part of the investigation, reported "a pattern of parental requests for increasingly invasive procedures based on undocumented symptoms reported by the parent."

According to them, the child was "subjected to over 474 doctors’ visits."

A report co-authored by four medical professionals on the child’s care team, reviewed and signed by the medical director for Seattle Children’s Hospital, was sent to the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) in February 2021. DCYF then contacted the Renton Police Department who began their investigation.

Prosecutors said doctors at Children’s Hospital told Hartman her daughter could walk normally. But Hartman "has required her daughter to wear leg braces, orthotics and use a wheelchair since at least 2016," they added.

The investigation also allegedly revealed that Hartman allegedly tried to have her now six-year-old daughter's puberty delayed through hormone therapy.

Court documents said the child underwent many procedures, including implantation of a feeding tube and a cecostomy tube used to administer an enema, despite doctors warning Hartman that the treatments were unnecessary.

Doctors at Children’s Hospital, who observed the little girl for two weeks as part of the investigation, have reported that the child was able to run and walk without the use of orthotics. "She demonstrated no need for a wheelchair," they said.

The police also revealed that they came across Hartman's diary while searching her home, which read: "When it comes to suffering, I am a compulsive liar/exaggerator."

The child was given a wish by the Make-a-Wish foundation in 2018. Hartman had then claimed that the child had Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood, a genetic disorder. Though the child was initially diagnosed with AHC, the child care team later told detectives medical findings suggest the child does not have the disease.

Meanwhile, Hartman's attorneys issued a statement on her behalf which denied the charges.

" Sophie Hartman is the mother of a young child with a rare neurological condition diagnosed and treated by doctors at Duke University Medical Center. Despite overwhelming objective evidence in the medical record supporting this diagnosis, the King County Prosecuting Attorney has charged Ms. Hartman with assault of a child in the second degree and attempted assault. These charges are based on false statements and misrepresentations of the medical record by a doctor at Seattle Children’s Hospital who has never seen the child or spoken with Ms. Hartman. Ms. Hartman is innocent of these charges.

Ms. Hartman’s child was diagnosed with a rare neurological disease, Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood, by one of the few expert pediatric neurologists in the world from Duke University and by a neurologist at Mary Bridge Hospital in Tacoma. The child has been evaluated and treated by the doctors at Duke for three years. Contrary to the allegations of the King County Prosecuting Attorney, the child’s diagnosis was made by more than one doctor, is legitimate, and is based on a substantial record beyond the reports and information provided by Ms. Hartman. That record includes independent medical examinations by multiple doctors, direct observation of the child by doctors and nurses at Duke and at Seattle Children’s Hospital, standardized testing results, videotapes of the child’s symptoms, MRI, EEG, and other diagnostic tests. The King County Prosecuting Attorney has the medical records from Duke as well as records from Seattle Children’s Hospital amply supporting the diagnosis and the consistent reports of Ms. Hartman.

The medical records in this case have been reviewed by Dr. Eli Newberger, a medical child abuse doctor with 40 years of experience, who has advised the King County Prosecuting Attorney that filing charges against Ms. Hartman is a "miscarriage of justice." Dr. Newberger’s letter is attached. The victims in this case are Sophie Hartman, her children and her family who are having to fight wholly unjustified charges."