“We thought they helped people.”
by Lenore Skenazy
Reason.com
Patti Krueger is a stay-at-home mom in Decatur, Illinois. Her husband is a house painter. The couple’s second son, Wyatt, was born in 2017 with severe breathing difficulties.
“He was blue,” says Krueger.
Wyatt spent nine days in neonatal intensive care. Over the next two years his breathing problems necessitated oxygen treatments, tubes in his ears, and four surgeries, according to Krueger.
Some of his treatments were at a nearby hospital in Peoria. Many hospitals today have a Child Abuse Pediatrician (CAP), a doctor on contract with child protective services. Their job is to be on the lookout for child abuse, including abuse other doctors may have missed. While the CAP at this hospital never met Krueger or worked directly with Wyatt, she reviewed his file and accused the mother of Munchausen syndrome by proxy—in other words, causing or faking a child’s illness to get attention.