Mother Faked Child's Illness To Collect Disability Checks For 2 Years

A woman in Georgia was accused of faking her son’s illness over a course of two years and also of putting him on 28 unnecessary medications.

Deputies from Gainesville, Georgia, arrested Teresa Lynne Roth on Thursday after a four-month investigation. They alleged Roth forced her five-year-old to use a wheelchair and feeding tube so that she could collect his disability checks.

“Between January 2016 and October 2018, Mrs. Roth did cause her son unnecessary physical and mental pain by subjecting him to undergo unnecessary medical treatments and medications, jeopardizing his well-being,” Hall County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Scott Ware said.

The child was strapped to an oxygen tank, had a feeding tube inserted into his stomach and was confined to a wheelchair. He was removed from Roth’s care after police began suspecting she was fabricating her son’s condition in order to receive a monthly disability check from the state. Ware said the parents were receiving disability since the child was in their custody but they stopped getting the checks since October.

Roth came under police radar after the boy was taken to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta in 2016. Doctors treating the boy told investigators they became suspicious of the mother when they figured out that all the illnesses they were treating him for were made up. They then informed healthcare officials and the Department of Family and Children’s Services who removed the boy from Roth’s custody. The boy is now in DFCS custody and is doing much better.

Investigators believe Roth might be suffering from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, which is a form of abuse wherein a caregiver fabricates an illness or injury to someone in their care to get sympathy for themselves.

Roth was in police custody with a $16,700 bond. More arrests could be made in the case as police investigate it further.

In a similar incident in 2015, a woman in Springfield, Missouri, managed to convince several charities like Make-a-Wish foundation that her daughter Gypsy Rose was dying of natural causes. Dee Dee Blancharde suffered from the Munchausen syndrome and fed her daughter seizure medication in addition to shaving her head and confining her to a wheelchair — all so that the child would appear sick. The incident came to light after Blancharde was killed by her daughter's boyfriend.

In 2013, Lacey Spears was convicted of the murder of her son. She slowly poisoned him with lethal amounts of salt in his feeding tube. Similarly, in 2009, Hope Ybarra, a former chemist was arrested after she drained her daughter’s blood with a syringe and faked tests for cystic fibrosis.

People who suffer from Munchausen syndrome by proxy are predominantly females with a history of abuse who are looking for sympathy and attention.