True Story Media

Before we begin, a quick warning that in this show, we discuss child abuse, and this content may be difficult for some listeners.

If you or anyone you know is a victim or survivor of medical child abuse, please go to munchausensupport.com to connect with professionals

who can help.

One of the reasons that I wanted to share Joe's story this season in full and really go deep on their

entire process that they've been through in the past few years

is because I wanted to look at the after effects of this abuse. And in previous seasons,

we've talked a lot about investigations into medical child abuse and looking at evidence and looking at what children are going through when they're experiencing this abuse.

And this has been our chance to really look at what it is like to survive this abuse.

What does life look like after this was

your childhood? I think in some sense, both Joe and I knew that Donna's death was going to be

this ultimate hurdle that they were going to have to go through at some point. And it was

this looming thing that Donna would always have these brushes with death and then survive them.

And so it was just sort of this cycle. And that when that cycle finally ended, it might be freeing on some sense, but in the

immediate aftermath, it was really going to bring all of these things that have been building

up in Joe their entire life. It was going to bring them right to the surface. I think this has really

given us an opportunity to get away from thinking about, oh, it's this many

surgeries and it's this many lies, and it's just sort of this laundry list of horrible things

that happen to a child.

And obviously, whenever I'm covering these cases, I try not to cover them in that way.

I really try and focus on the

humanity of all of the people involved. And I think you don't see how this affects someone on a human

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