A Mother Accused

For years, Jennifer Bush had been in and out of hospitals. By the time she was 8, she had been hospitalized more than 200 times, and had undergone more than 40 surgeries.

Doctors had removed her gallbladder, her appendix and part of her intestines. She was often nourished through feeding tubes.

What was causing Jennifer's illness? Florida prosecutors say her mother, Kathy Bush. 48 Hours Correspondent Harold Dow reports.

Prosecutors said Jennifer was the victim of a rare form of child abuse known as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, whereby a parent, usually a mother, is so desperate for attention that she will lie to doctors and invent symptoms about her child.

In some cases, the parent will even cause the child's sickness.

For most of her life, Jennifer, who is now 12, was being treated for a long list of illnesses, including a digestive disorder that prevented her from absorbing food properly. Scars from dozens of surgeries mark Jennifer's chest.

Kathy Bush claims she is innocent. "There's not one thread of solid proof that I've done anything to Jennifer," she says.

"We feel as though we have made the ultimate sacrifices for Jennifer, and then to be ridiculed and accused of such a heinous crime, it's unbearable, absolutely unbearable," she adds.

But experts on Munchausen say that those who suffer from the disease find ways to hide their actions. "The perpetrators who abuse their children this way are very, very sneaky," says Beatrice Crofts Yorker, one expert.

"It's amazing how many ways I have read or seen of mothers making their children ill," Yorker says. "They can give them medication that is prescribed for them. They can inject them. They can suffocate them so that they look like they have apnea or seizures."

And often doctors rely on parents to give them information about the child's illness, Yorker says.

A year later, Jennifer was taken away from her parents, transferred to a hospital in Cincinnati and placed in foster care. The Bushes have not visited Jennifer since May of this year.

The investigation was tough on the rest of the Bush family: Kathy's husband, Craig, and the couple's sons, Jason, now 20, and Matthew, 17.

"I'm afraid that tey'llÂ…split our family up, take my sister and put her somewhere," Jason said in 1996.

"[This] would totally be the wrong thing to do for my sister, because she needs my mom, you know, to survive. She wouldn't be with us anymore if it wasn't for my mom," he said.

Some doctors defended Kathy Bush, saying that she was not abusing her child. One of those was Dr. Mario Tano, who had treated Jennifer for five years.

But many others say that Kathy Bush was to blame.

"I think the woman is extremely dangerous to her daughter," psychiatrist Herbert Schreier told a judge during a hearing about the case. "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that most of this child's illnesses were fabricated."

To see how the trial proceeded, read "48 Hours: A Mother On Trial."

To read about another case in which a mother was falsely accused, read "False Charges."

Produced by David Kohn;