S05 Ep06: Human Timebomb

Nobody Should Believe Me

True Story Media

True Crime, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2025

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sophie insists to police and others that the real problem isn’t that she’s abusing her daughter but that Seattle Children’s–a world class pediatric hospital–simply doesn’t understand her daughter’s rare condition: Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood. But according to police interviews, very few people in C’s orbit ever witnessed an episode, and if they did, they described symptoms that, alone, are not indicative of AHC. We also hear snippets of interviews stating that Sophie often presented AHC as a terminal illness, a claim that Dr. Zupanc refutes. Dr. Jill Glick, a child abuse pediatrician from the University of Chicago, returns to talk us through the process hospitals go through when evaluating medical child abuse cases. We also go through a few of the many inconsistencies in Sophie’s reports to C’s various doctors. Sophie claims that C could die at any moment from AHC: but does she even have it? *** Links and Resources: Watch Human Timebombs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qbjprd9v9Y More about Dr. Mary Zupanc: https://www.childneurologysociety.org/awards/mary-l-zupanc-md/ More about Dr. Jill Glick: https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/find-a-physician/physician/jill-c-glick Learn more about our featured non-profit and mutual aid organizations: https://www.nobodyshouldbelieveme.com/nsbm-supports/ Check out You Probably Think This Story's About You: https://brittaniard.com/podcast Click here to view our sponsors. Remember that using our codes helps advertisers know you’re listening and helps us keep making the show! Subscribe on YouTube where we have full episodes and lots of bonus content. Follow Andrea on Instagram for behind-the-scenes photos: @andreadunlop Buy Andrea's books here. To support the show, go to Patreon.com/NobodyShouldBelieveMe or subscribe on Apple Podcasts where you can get all episodes early and ad-free and access exclusive ethical true crime bonus content. For more information and resources on Munchausen by Proxy, please visit MunchausenSupport.com The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children’s MBP Practice Guidelines can be downloaded here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	True Story Media.
0:07.5	Before we begin, a quick warning that in this show, we discuss child abuse, and this content
0:12.7	may be difficult for some listeners. If you or anyone you know is a victim or survivor of medical
0:17.6	child abuse, please go to MunchausenSen Support.com to connect with professionals who can help.
0:24.4	Throughout the first year of my nephew's life, things felt increasingly off with my sister.
0:30.9	It was just a million small things about her baby's development and especially his eating issues.
0:36.8	After being diagnosed failure to thrive,
0:39.2	he'd had a nasal gastric tube inserted to help with his feeding, and this tube is in most of the
0:44.4	pictures I have of him. And then, Megan started talking about him needing a G-tube, which would
0:49.7	require a surgery. It was around this time that my mother went to the gastroenterologist with Megan
0:55.1	and heard him say that he didn't think my nephew needed it yet. And this was all happening
1:01.4	against the backdrop of a long history of her deceptions. My sister's own questionable surgeries,
1:07.3	her faked twin pregnancy, and the dramatic loss of those babies that never were.
1:12.6	I remember going with her to an ultrasound when she was pregnant with my nephew,
1:16.6	and seeing the image of the baby with my own eyes, and still feeling unsure if he was real.
1:22.3	This makes me realize how much I already knew about the true her, how hard I was working to hide it for myself.
1:29.3	But pushing him towards a surgery he didn't need crossed a line.
1:33.1	My parents met with their family doctor and she gave them the words for the pattern we'd been
1:37.2	seeing, Munchausen by proxy.
1:40.5	I remember them sitting down to tell me that evening, and I thought, our family is over.
1:46.9	She'll never forgive us, because we knew we had to intervene.
1:51.0	There never seemed, at least the three of us, to be another option.
	...

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