Fabricating or Inducing illness

All about caring
1

A little while ago I was accused of suffering from FII or Fabricating or inducing illness, previously known as munchaussen by proxy by my sons paediatrician. This was after my son was diagnosed with a very rare syndrome by Great Ormond st hospital. I was left in fear of my own liberty as a consequence of this allegation. The allegation was quietly dropped, but i have had no formal notification of it and i live in constant fear of it coming back. I have spoken to one of the accusers, who was my sons GP. Since the allegation she has refused to turn up to Child in Need meetings and has refused to say one way or another whether she stands by her allegation. All she has said is that I was considered to be on the low end of the spectrum at the time the allegation was made. She accused me of “over diagnosing” my son. But I have never seen the allegation put to me in writing. Social workers claimed that the reason I was accused was because I wanted to put my son through unneccessary tests. I simply asked that they x ray my sons back since he had been diagnosed with scoliosis and kyphosis variously and I also asked if my son might be having seizures in his sleep which is causing him to wake frequently at night. He also has strange laughing episodes and I have been told that that could be a gelastic seizure by one of the other parents whose son has the same syndrome. My son is being locked in his bedroom every night by his father and is being denied access to medical treatment.

What I am struggling with is how do I deal with this allegation when theyve never put anything to me in writing to say what the allegation is and have then subsequently refused to state whether the allegation stands or not. I am dealing with an extremely sensitive child protection matter given that my ex husband is locking him in his bedroom every night and I would like to understand my rights as a parent in this situation. It has been an extremely frightening ordeal and I want to find a way to end the whole ordeal. Is there anyone on this forum who can advise?

2

Make a “Subject Access Request” to whoever is making these allegations. Ask Google for more info.

3

Thanks. I will check.

The allegation was made by my sons paediatrician and his GP who then quietly dropped the allegation and refused to attend the meeting with social services to provide me with the timeline or evidence that they claimed to have to support the allegation.

I took legal advice at the time and they said it was a common tactic to intimidate parents who complained about lack of service support for sick and disabled children.

The paediatrician who made the allegation has quietly dropped out of the picture completely. The second paediatrician involved is still writing reports that my son has none of the symptoms of the syndrome Great Ormond St hospital diagnosed him with, despite it being evidenced in his medical history. His GP now quietly starting to agree with the concerns I am raising, but refusing to attend the meetings. Great Ormond St hospital did not support the allegations.

My sons social workers line manager even tried to carry on intimidating me in the child in need meeting warning me that I needed to be careful about it because certain professionals still believed I was suffering from FII, even though at this point neither Health nor Social Services were complying with any of the SEN statutory obligations towards my son. It was a very frightening ordeal and I still live in fear of it coming back, just because I am trying to advocate for my son. I am told that there is very little I can do about the past allegation and I am unlikely to get an apology any time soon. But I would like to know what it is I am dealing with and why they felt the need to make the allegation.

Lucy