TX - Mary Welch, chgd w Med Child Abuse of son Duke, now 11y/o, MN hosp surgeries

al66pine

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From Prof. Thaddeus Pope's blog today
Mary Welch Charged with Medical Child Abuse for Obtaining Unnecessary Treatment

A 50-page arrest warrant for Mary Anna Welch accuses her of deceiving doctors into performing needless invasive surgeries on her son, Duke.


She's charged with child endangerment. (NBC News; ABC News)
http://medicalfutility.blogspot.com/


From the NBC link:
"...A Texas mother is facing medical child abuse charges for allegedly treating her child with medication,
and doctor shopping all the way to Minnesota to find someone to perform surgery on the boy,
even though doctors in Texas say the treatment was unnecessary
."

Brain surgery?!?!?!? No words.

(Mods, if there is a thread on this already, I missed it, so pls delete or merge)
 
How anyone could do that unnecessarily to their child, after sitting at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, for all of November 2014, watching my own kid have a brain tumor and his pituitary gland removed, and now embarking on a year of chemo is beyond me.
 
December 2014:

The child's mother, Mary Welch, has been indicted by a Texas grand jury. Welch is now facing felony charges of attempting to cause serious bodily injury to a child, and child endangerment...

"The extent of the lying by the biological mother is really extraordinary" said Dr. Marc Feldman. Feldman is an expert in "Medical Child Abuse," or what's sometimes called "Munchausen by Proxy." It's where a parent attracts sympathy for themselves by fabricating illnesses for their child. He reviewed the case for KARE 11. "This really looks like a Munchausen by proxy case" said Feldman.

http://www.kare11.com/story/news/in...r-of-kare-11-investigation-indicted/20325141/

May 2015:

Ramsey County prosecutors will not file charges against a mother who was the focus of a KARE 11 investigation into a child subjected to years of possibly unnecessary medical treatment and mind-numbing medications...

Because the worst of the alleged abuse, the surgeries, happened in Minnesota, Texas investigators presented Ramsey County with evidence to determine if charges are warranted here as well.

http://www.kare11.com/story/news/in...-at-center-of-kare-11-investigation/27917679/
 
Duke Welch began his slow, dark descent into serious illness when he was five years old.
While at a friend's house five years ago, Duke took a hard fall and went to the hospital. Doctors said Duke would make a full recovery, but he never did...

In all, Duke had many dangerous surgeries. Four for a shunt that drained spinal fluid from his brain. Another to insert a feeding tube in his belly. Duke wore leg braces and enrolled in a special-needs school.

Before the nightmare ended, records show, Duke was on 15 medications, including an anti-psychotic drug called Risperdal...

Mary Welch was arrested in May and Duke has been in his father's care since. Today, he takes no medication. He is out of special-education classes and getting good grades. He loves to play sports...

Records show Duke's teacher was the one who made the complaint that may have saved Duke.

http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/loca...d-of-medical-child-abuse-duke-welch/19293787/
 
Doug and Mary Welch were divorced and Mary had custody at the time. Doug claims his wife would not allow him to travel to Minnesota for the surgeries, but from Texas, he would talk via Skype with his son as the boy braved surgery after surgery...

Records show Mary Welch claimed Duke had been diagnosed as Autistic, and had him placed in a special needs school. But school administrators began to notice red flags. They filed a report with Texas Child Protection after Duke received the feeding tube, but never used the tube to eat. That tip began to unravel a case of alleged abuse outlined in a 50-page arrest warrant affidavit filed in Tarrant County, Texas..

a review of medical records shows Duke's fall that landed him in the hospital for four days was just for "observation." But the investigator claims Mary began telling everyone Duke had been on the "brink of death" was in "a coma" and as a result developed a "myriad of neurological problems." Those problems Included epilepsy, migraines, and seizures...

Risperdal is an Autism/bi-polar drug. It was prescribed for Duke despite a neuropsychologist claiming to investigators that she directly told Mary, "you can't 'catch' autism from a head injury." Among the drug's side effects are sedation and cognitive blunting. Doug Welch now believes all the medications were the cause of Duke's troubles in school. "He was drugged," said Welch...
Mary pretended to be a neo-natal intensive care nurse when in fact she was just a technician at Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth. It's alleged she spoke the medical language so well, and lied so convincingly, that she talked Minnesota doctors into doing surgery without even checking Duke's medical history in Texas.

http://www.kare11.com/story/news/in...urgery-texas-mom-minnesota-hospital/70019198/
 
December 2015:

Welch and her mother, Deborah Baker, are indicted in Johnson County on charges of theft of $2,500 to $30,000 while in a contractual relationship with the state government. Welch had previously lived in Alvarado but now lives in Burleson, court records show.

The Texas Attorney General’s office, which conducted the investigation, accuses Baker of fraudulently obtaining almost $8,000 by submitting false bills to Medicaid for times when she was not caring for her grandson. Welch is alleged to have signed the false timesheets..

Mike Heiskell, Welch’s defense attorney, said he believes that the brain shunt, which remains in place, was and continues to be needed and has led to “vast improvements” for the boy.

An arrest warrant affidavit says the shunt was not removed because of risks associated with a removal surgery...


Welch and her ex-husband, who are in a custody battle, currently are allowed only supervised visits with their two children, who reside with their maternal grandmother.

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/special-reports/article50436035.html
 

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