Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Woman admits to bleeding infant daughter

|
|
 
  
Published: May 24, 2009 at 5:37 PM

CINCINNATI, May 24 (UPI) -- An Indiana mother has admitted to purposely taking blood from her 9-month-old daughter to gain attention for herself, prosecutors say.

Doctors were baffled last year as to why the infant, Sophia Lewis of Milan, Ind., was losing so much blood. But physicians at Cincinnati Children's Hospital said they determined that her mother, Kellie Lewis, was bleeding the infant purposely. Last week Lewis pleaded guilty to felonious assault and two counts of child endangering, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

Hamilton County, Ohio, prosecutors accused Lewis of "removing blood from her child, thereby causing the child to suffer blood loss requiring multiple transfusions with attendant risk."

Lewis maintains she suffers from a rare psychological disorder called Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy, in which mothers fake illnesses of their children or sometimes inflict real physical abuse on them, often to get sympathy for or draw attention to the themselves, the newspaper said.

"They appear to be extremely attentive mothers … even though they know the whole time they are causing it," Brian Masterson, a University of Cincinnati professor of clinical psychiatry, told the Enquirer. "We do know people do this. Nobody has any idea why."

Recommended Stories
© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
The Tibetan Moniam Festival in China Super Bowl XLVI ticker tape victory parade Proposition 8 ruled unconstitutional in California
AARP Movies for Grownups Award Gala The Most Desirable Women of 2012 Snowy Owls make appearance in Washington
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 15
Rose McGowan at The Heart Truth's Red Dress Fall 2012 Collections at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week In New York
View Caption
fark
Researchers develop way to scan liquids that may allow travelers to carry on enough vodka to relieve...
If you ever drop your weed by the side of the road let it go, because man, it's gone, and the cops...
DUDE, the guy in full police uniform probably isn't in on the robbery
Rick Santorum isn't the only politician with a surging Google problem
Kodak moment finally runs out
The Fall and Rise of the American Craft Brewery. Starts scary, but has a happy ending. And the hero...