A young boy named Christopher Bowen has been to the hospital hundreds of times and has undergone over a dozen ‘major’ surgeries — shockingly, he may not have needed any of them.
Kaylene Bowen-Wright, the 8-year-old boy’s mother, was recently arrested, and since then, strange details have emerged. Back in 2014, Bowen-Wright took to a local news station to raise money for her son’s “life-threatening” illness called Arterio-Venous Malformation.
“Christopher has trouble breathing so basically, his lungs ― and body ― doesn’t get the oxygen it needs, so he gets tired,” she told CW33 TV. “He can’t play as long as the normal kids.”
After creating a fundraiser for her son’s illness in 2014, the very next year, another fundraiser was set up to raise money for a beach trip. According to the site, he had cancer and only six months to live.
“I want him to build sand castles, walk on the beach and let the waves hit him as he plays with his family,” the organizer wrote.
The strange behavior continued when Christopher was just a kindergartner at White Rock Elementary School in Lake Highlands. Friends and supporters of the young boy set up a YouCaring campaign to raise an additional $8,000 “to help young Christopher and his family as they struggle against a disease that is slowly ending his life.”
During the time that Bowen-Wright was bringing her son, in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank, to doctor after doctor, Ryan Crawford, Christopher’s dad, has been trying to convince judges that his son isn’t sick.
According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Crawford has been unable to see his son since 2012.
“It was always the same story: ‘Christopher is dying. The father doesn’t need to be around because he doesn’t know to take care of him,’” Bowen-Wright would tell the judges, according to Crawford. “Every time I went to court, they made me feel like I was the worst human ever.”
Crawford claims that he even went to Child Protective Services, who also ignored his suspicions. They also deny that he ever contacted them at all. However, the CPS records obtained by the Star-Telegram were shocking.
Documents that were obtained show that CPS received a report in November of 2015 from a doctor saying that testing found nothing wrong with Christopher. His mother denied any wrongdoing and the case was closed.
In November of 2017, CPS received yet another report from a different health provider. It stated that Bowen-Wright brought her son to the hospital because he suffered a seizure. The doctors, however, could not find any indication that this was the case. They also suggested that she wean her son off of medications that he was currently taking.
“I am very concerned that mother has moved from exaggerating symptoms to inducing symptoms,” the report read, according to the Star-Telegram. “If mother has given Chris something to induce a seizure, this is potentially fatal. At this point, I am very concerned for his welfare.”
An investigation was finally launched, and on Dec. 6 Dallas police arrested Bowen-Wright on charges of injury to a child with serious bodily injury, alleging that she caused Christopher’s mysterious illnesses.
Investigators believe that Bowen-Wright began abusing her son when he was only 11 days old. The official documents stated that Christopher, in fact, does not have cancer and had been put through repeated unnecessary hospital visits and procedures.
“Christopher’s history provided verbally by Ms. Kaylene Bowen-Wright paints a picture of a very sick child,” the affidavit reads. “The doctors do not find Christopher to be sick. Ms. Bowen-Wright has Christopher on oxygen, yet Christopher is fine without oxygen. Christopher is able to eat normally and does not need a feeding tube.”
Christopher has since been placed in foster care, and his dad is now fighting for custody. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help pay for attorney’s costs.
“Out of everything that has happened, the worst thing you can do is put my children in foster care with strangers,” Crawford told the Star-Telegram. “I need my son in my life and my son needs me in [his] life.”
Full news footage of this story is below. Bowen-Wright is now being held at the Dallas County Jail and is awaiting her court date.
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