A mommy blogger who wrote about her daughter’s struggles with chronic illness is now on trial for injecting urine into the young girl’s veins while she was in the hospital.
The Australian woman is on trial for the disturbing allegations of abuse, which doctors discovered while the young girl was hospitalized. As News.com.au reported, the woman was a former midwife who shared with followers the struggles her young daughter endured. But after the girl was admitted to the hospital for kidney failure in 2015, doctors found fungus growing in the girl’s intravenous drip and police discovered evidence that the mother may have been responsible for the chronic ailments.
As the report noted, police found syringes, laxatives, and urine samples in the mother’s handbag. Investigators said she also forced the girl to take laxatives, causing irritation and peeling on her skin.
It was not clear if the mother would have caused all of the girl’s health ailments. As the New York Daily News noted, the girl was born with a genetic ailment that required treatment.
There were differing reports at the time it was first reported, with some accusing the mother of intentionally hurting her daughter to get attention and other reports suggesting that she was desperate to get doctors to treat her daughter. In her postings online, the woman often shared frustrations that the girl’s health was not improving.
“I wanted him [the doctor] to treat her,” the mother wrote in a blog post which has since been taken down (via the New York Daily News ). “Do something. Anything. She was in pain and I could see she was becoming unwell.”
As the report added, the mother had the young girl involved in a number of children’s charities, and the young girl became the face of some of these charities. She was also a performer, having danced at the Sydney Opera House.
Friends told the New York Daily News that they were shocked at the allegations, saying they would have never suspected the mother would hurt her child.
An Australian mom injected her daughter with urine because doctors weren’t treating her. https://t.co/w9QZ3xBZDL pic.twitter.com/4suQuCdbKP
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) October 20, 2015
It was not clear what condition the girl was in since she fell ill in 2015.
The woman, who was not identified by name, is on trial for a charge of using poison to endanger life or inflict grievous bodily harm, as well as a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. She has remained free on bail during the trial.
