A mother forced her 3-year-old daughter to undergo “unnecessary medical procedures,” according to Texas law enforcement and court documents, which say she dragged the toddler to more than a dozen medical providers in Texas, Louisiana and Ohio.
The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) is asking anyone who has been in contact with Jessica Gasser, a 27-year-old Texas mom who was arrested last week, accused of medically abusing her toddler, to come forward. The sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that Gasser’s case is an example of Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
Factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIA), formerly called Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSP), is a mental illness in which a person acts as if an individual in their care has a physical or mental illness when the person is actually fine, according to the Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio.
Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital was one of the dozen medical providers listed in the probable cause affidavit as having seen the 3-year-old girl.
Tarrant County
TCSO Detective Michael Weber, lead investigator in the case, was unavailable for comment at the time of publication Tuesday, a spokesperson told Newsweek via email.
Gasser was arrested on Friday following a months-long probe into the accusations after suspicions were raised by health care workers on February 9, according to the arrest affidavit obtained by local outlet Star-Telegram. She could face a charge of felony injury to a child, according to the document filed July 11. Gasser, who has not been formally charged by prosecutors as of Tuesday night, is in custody at the Tarrant County Corrections Center, according to online records.
In February, a Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) liaison for Cook Children’s Medical Center alerted TCSO that a patient was a suspected victim of medical child abuse, the affidavit shows. The DFPS liaison, Robin Chavez, told Weber that she dug into the suspect’s background and found that Gasser had been previously reported for suspicions of child medical abuse by at least two other Texas medical facilities.
Investigators say Gasser provided a false medical history to health care workers, leading them to perform “numerous” procedures on the child, including drawing blood 28 times from the girl. In one example noted in the document, the 3-year-old was given a feeding tube in March because Gasser alleged the child was not eating and was losing weight. Medical staff alleged that the mother was tampering with the girl’s feeding tube, according to court documents.
TCSO said in the statement shared on Facebook that investigators are unsure of how long the abuse had been happening but said that Gasser sent messages to a friend telling her to delete all of her posts on Facebook about her 3-year-old’s health, including private messages.
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TCSO urges those who have had recent contact with the suspect via social media or text message to call the sheriff’s office. Gasser has used the social media handle MedicalMamaJess, and had thousands of followers, TCSO said in a statement.
Multiple health care workers at several medical facilities in the three states mentioned told investigators that it appeared Gasser was “doctor shopping to get what she wanted,” the affidavit says.
The affidavit also goes into detail about Gasser’s numerous social media postings, saying that she lied about the 3-year-old girl having rare and life-threatening medical conditions.
The Texas mother is also accused of taking advantage of a charity organization and her social media followers by seeking donations to cover the unnecessary medical expenses.
Gasser had set up a GoFundMe account to raise money to take her daughter to the Cleveland Clinic for treatment, the affidavit shows. The mother and daughter flew from Dallas to Cleveland though Miracle Flight, which offers free flights to children who need to travel for medical assistance and their guardians, in another example noted in the court document. On the paperwork for the charity flight, Gasser said her daughter was diagnosed with gastroparesis, even though doctors at Children’s Medical Center Dallas and Dell Children’s Medical Center had told Gasser that her toddler did not have the rare condition, according to the affidavit.
In the few weeks since the victim was cared for by someone other than her mother, the child began “thriving” physically, the document states.
