MOTHER FOUND GUILTY OF MUNCHAUSEN AFTER SON DOES 13 SURGERIES

An eight year old boy, Christopher Bowen has been to the hospital 323 times and has undergone 13 major surgeries.

He’s been on a feeding tube delivering food through his small intestines, confined to a wheelchair, and has even spent time in hospice.

At various times, his mother, Kaylene Bowen, said he had cancer or suffered from a rare degenerative disorder that affected his oxygen supply. She tried to get him on the lung transplant list, according to CPS records obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Doctors and CPS investigators involved in the case now say there was nothing with Christopher and he never needed to have a feeding tube or oxygen — or many of the medically invasive procedures he underwent.

Last month, Christopher and his two siblings were removed from their mother’s care after she came to Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, claiming he had suffered a massive seizure.

He is now in foster care.

Kaylene Bowen is in the Dallas County Jail on an injury to a child charge. Her bail is set at $150,000. She declined an interview request.

Christopher’s father, Ryan Crawford, says her arrest was a long time coming. He’s angry that it took so long for the system to finally believe that Christopher’s mother was lying about illnesses.

“How do you do 13 surgeries? How do you do it?” he asked. “How do you do 13 surgeries and not question the fifth surgery? The sixth surgery?”

Investigators think the case is one of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental disorder in which a caregiver makes up an illness or injury to get medical care.

“They doctor shop and hospital shop,” says Dr. Marc Feldman, a nationally recognized expert on the disorder. “They often frequent many emergency rooms over a wide geographic area. One doctor may never know that medical procedures or diagnostic tests have already been performed elsewhere, so it happens again and again and again.”

Feldman believes that the disorder is underreported. He says there is a nine percent mortality rate among published reports – making it one of the most lethal forms of child abuse.

“These mothers tend to be master deceivers and liars,” Feldman said. “They’re very skilled at what they do.”

Crawford and Bowen met at a club about a decade ago. They dated on-and-off for about two years.

He says there were early signs when she was pregnant that something wasn’t right. She would call in the middle of the night and claim to be in the hospital.

Christopher was born prematurely, but otherwise healthy, he said.

He recalls that Bowen constantly claimed that Christopher would not drink his milk and would throw it up when he did. Over time, her claims about Christopher’s medical problems became more and more outlandish.

The more he questioned Christopher’s medical issues, the less she was willing to let him see his son, he says.

At points, Crawford represented himself in custody proceedings. He says he tried to tell the judge that his son was not sick, but the judge believed his ex.

In 2012, he says Lori Hockett, a family court district judge, stripped him of his visitation rights because he refused to accept that his son was dying.

“Every single [time] she went into [the] courtroom, she would say Christopher is dying,” Crawford said. “The judge stated that I needed to accept that my son was dying and I said, ‘No, I’m not going to accept that my son was dying’ and she took away from my visitation.’”

In 2014, Bowen hired an attorney and tried to get full custody of their son. He says he obtained medical records showing his son was not sick. He says the judge refused to even look at the records and dismissed his motion.

“It makes me feel as if the system wants to believe the mother all the time in situations, when the father is there fighting,” Crawford said.

Hockett is not currently a judge. She told the Star-Telegram in an email that she could not comment on Crawford’s allegations.

Through it all, Crawford says he continued to pay his $600 a month in child support.

Crawford says he complained to CPS twice and his aunt complained to CPS once. CPS spokeswoman Marissa Gonzales said the agency has no record of the complaints.