Over 70 Families Say They Lost Their Children to False Munchausen by Proxy Allegations Levied by One

[PeteS in CA]

Over 70 Families Say They Lost Their Children to False Munchausen by Proxy Allegations Levied by One Doctor

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/megan-fox/2023/10/16/over-70-families-say-they-lost-their-children-to-false-munchausen-by-proxy-allegations-levied-by-one-doctor-n1735281

Lehigh County, Pa., is on fire right now with the outrage of at least 70 families who are on a mission to have Dr. Debra Esernio-Jenssen, a “child abuse pediatrician,” fired from Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) and hopefully brought up on criminal charges. The families allege that Dr. Jenssen diagnosed all of them with the controversial “Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy” and accused them of child abuse when they brought their children into LVHN for various reasons.

These families have been flooding different commissioner’s meetings, holding press conferences, and protesting since the beginning of the month. Their stories are outrageous.
...
The Pennsylvania parents spoke out at an October Board of Commissioners meeting last week.

“My children, my husband, and myself are victims of the cruel practices that seem to follow Dr. Debra Jenssen everywhere she goes,” said one mother to a packed room. “The trauma, the pain, the agony of having your child ripped from your arms and taken away from you all while being wrongly and falsely accused is indescribable. On Debra Jenssen’s word, without ever having met me turned my life into a living, breathing nightmare. And it’s a nightmare that never ends. We can’t hear a car door close outside my home without jumping. We freeze at any knock at our front door fearing the police are behind it when it’s opened.”
...
Jenssen did this to families in three different states. She worked in New York until the lawsuits began and then made her way to Florida, where there were several complaints found against her. She was eventually assigned to a position that was not in “child protection” because of it. She then moved to Pennsylvania and got a job on the “child protection” team at the Lehigh Valley Health Network, where the community is revolting against her.

Sadly, it appears that there is no national-level capability to preclude this @#$%^ moving to a 4th (or more?) state and pulling this same crap.

[Kamaji]

Over 70 Families Say They Lost Their Children to False Munchausen by Proxy Allegations Levied by One Doctor

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/megan-fox/2023/10/16/over-70-families-say-they-lost-their-children-to-false-munchausen-by-proxy-allegations-levied-by-one-doctor-n1735281

Sadly, it appears that there is no national-level capability to preclude this @#$%^ moving to a 4th (or more?) state and pulling this same crap.

There needs to be some sort of national-level registration and licensing of doctors, the same way there is national registration of commercial drivers (the current federally-mandated CDL system was put in place because, prior to it, some commercial drivers would hold licenses from multiple states, rack up fines and tickets on one license until it was suspended, and then continue driving - usually recklessly - on another license from another state).

[Smokin Joe]

This sort of crap is pretty common, and done at the behest of a gaggle of LSWs who are willing to lie (and do so), not just distort the facts in order to build their case load. While some kids are abused or neglected, often the worst cases are not pursued (because some batsh*t crazy abuser represents a very real threat) and the mildest complaints are distorted into major issues. The parents in that instance are in shock, and attorneys who earnestly will go up against the Social Serpents are few and expensive, so poor and middle class families are commonly targeted.

[PeteS in CA]

One of the stupid tendencies of human beings is that newly discovered/named diseases and conditions get over-"diagnosed" and some people think they must have it because they must. In the 1970s it was hypoglycemia, in the 80s it was TMJ, etc. ... all real conditions, but brought into disrepute by bandwagoneers.

[The_Reader_David]

Munchausen by Proxy is a pretty horrible ailment.  A good friend of mine and his wife ended up raising their grandsons, due to the kids mother having Munchausen by Proxy and trying to keep the kids sick.  Even when one of the kids was in the hospital she was caught on camera doctoring their medicine to keep them sick.  They are quite blessed that she didn't kill one of them.  The sad part is that she never went to jail, but likely helped in the untimely death of husband #2, who was quickly cremated.  She's one sick puppy...

Yes, it's horrible, but it's also extremely rare.  A cluster of 70 Muchausen by proxy cases as patients of a single physician is prima facia evidence that the physician is the problem.  Yes, that presumption could be rebutted, but it would take a pile of evidence to prove the physician isn't ginning up claims of parental medical misbehavior where none exists.