Here’s one that pretty interesting too.
Hillary’s poisoned
poster child
http://www.jewishworldreview.com—; FLORIDA IS HOME to an ill-fated child whose life was ruined upon becoming a political pawn. No, this is not another lamentation about Elian Gonzalez.
This is the tragic tale of Jennifer Bush.
Do you remember Jennifer? Probably not. First Lady Hillary Clinton, who helped turn Jennifer into a national political prop for health care reform in 1994, must be very grateful that we’ve all forgotten the poor little girl from Coral Springs . Jennifer’s story, which took a shocking but largely unnoticed twist last week, is not merely a case of legislation-by-anecdote run amok.
It’s poster child abuse.
Six years ago, Jennifer’s mother wrote a widely-publicized letter to the White House. “Do you know what it is like to choose between purchasing groceries for the week to feed your family or buying needed medications for your chronically ill child?” Kathleen Bush asked.
Pale and wan, young Jennifer suffered from unidentified chronic digestive problems and myriad ailments from birth. She had her gall bladder, appendix, and fragments of her intestines removed. Those organs were replaced with a tangled cable of feeding tubes that constricted Jennifer’s 43-pound frame. Surgeons threaded a catheter into the girl’s heart. After 200 hospital visits and 40 operations, the Bush family had racked up medical bills worth more than $2 million.
Puzzled doctors and nurses scratched their heads over Jennifer’s 33,000-page medical file. The media ran maudlin profiles of the family. With TV crews in tow, saintly mother and sickly child headed up to Capitol Hill to campaign for Clinton-sponsored health insurance mandates.
Politicians unquestioningly embraced the Bushes and their tale of need. Hillary cuddled with seven-year-old Jennifer for the cameras; their mugs were splashed on the pages of USA Today and newspapers across the country. Shamelessly coached, Jennifer gave the Clintons a lucky silver dollar “to bring you good luck so everyone can have good insurance.” In another pre-programmed, kiddie-sized soundbite, Jennifer dutifully told the press: “I pray every night that I can get better - and that everyone can have insurance.”
Jennifer’s mother reveled in the relentless media attention and generous outpourings of public sympathy. Dropped by the family’s health insurer, out of a job, and in allegedly dire financial straits, Mrs. Bush poignantly appealed for government relief from the burden of Jennifer’s mysterious illness. “It’s strangling us,” she told one reporter.
But who was strangling whom? Several years before Hillary deified Mrs. Bush and elevated Jennifer to poster-child stardom, suspicious medical professionals had already begun questioning the mother’s role in making her “beautiful little angel” sick. Nurses complained that Mrs. Bush was force-feeding her child with unnecessary seizure drugs that made her vomit.
Independent specialists conducted extensive tests on Jennifer and found no evidence of digestive disorders. When Jennifer was separated from her mother for treatment at a Cincinnati hospital, the starved child feasted mightily on pizza, hot dogs, and chocolate bars. Meanwhile, authorities discovered that while the Bush family claimed poverty because of Jennifer’s health problems, they had splurged on trips to the Bahamas and Disney World, house remodeling, and a new Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
Dr. Eli Newberger, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School , concluded that nothing in Jennifer’s extensive records indicated “that the child has any underlying illness except the suffering she has had to endure as a result of efforts to portray her as needing urgent care.” Jennifer was removed from her family in 1996 and has been healthy ever since.
And now the final piece of the story that didn’t make it onto the front page of USA Today or into the First Lady’s talking points: Last week, Kathleen Bush – Hillary Clinton’s once-proud and loud sister in arms—was sentenced to five years in prison on two counts of aggravated child abuse and one count of fraud. She also pled guilty to a separate count of welfare fraud for misrepresenting $60,000 in assets on Medicaid forms. “There was probably more abuse in this single case,” lead prosecutor Bob Nichols noted, “than in all of the child-abuse cases I’ve prosecuted in my life combined.”
Mrs. Bush’s behavior is an extreme example of the Nanny State opportunism to which Hillary Clinton has dedicated her life. It’s enough to make you sick.
Btw, your link is not good.
Thanks again for the story.
what’s the deal with these new people??? can anyone fill me in or send me a link??? TIA....
There's a number of 'Rat political hacks who must be quaking in their boots this very minute wondering how much traction the exposure of their latest poster child "phony" is going to gain.
I'd hate to be the poor b*stard who gets thrown to Her Heinous for having come up with this current bright idea.
There was an “American Justice” on A & E about that woman. Not surprisingly, they do not rerun it very often.
Somebody ought to send this to Rush??
Somebody ought to send this to Rush??
I was having a hard time believing that story so did a little looking and sure enough, from CNN:
Mother found guilty of child abuse, fraud for making daughter sick
October 7, 1999
Web posted at: 7:36 p.m. EDT (2336 GMT)
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (CNN) — A Florida jury Thursday found a woman guilty of intentionally making her daughter sick and forcing her to undergo more than 40 needless surgeries, in what prosecutors called a case of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. Sentencing is set for November 12.
Forty-two-year old Kathy Bush had been charged with aggravated child abuse and fraud for bilking thousands of dollars from the State of Florida for medical expenses incurred by her daughter, Jennifer. The mother faces up to 45 years in prison.
When the verdict was announced, Bush’s 17-year-old son wept on the shoulder of a young woman, his face contorted. Neither Bush nor her husband showed any immediate response. But, as she was led out of the courtroom, Kathy Bush burst into tears.
Prosecutors claimed the woman suffered from a rare psychological disorder called Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, a condition in which a parent intentionally makes her child sick in order to gain sympathy and attention for herself.
By the time Jennifer was eight years old, she had spent 640 days in hospitals and had undergone more than 40 surgeries. She had had her appendix, gall bladder, and part of her intestines removed due to what doctors believed was a gastrointestinal disorder. She was fed through a feeding tube.
The girl’s plight even attracted the attention of first lady Hillary Clinton, who cited her case as an example of the high cost of medical care.
In 1996, Jennifer was removed from her parents’ home and has been in foster care since. Her feeding tube was removed shortly after she was taken from her parents and prosecutors say she has been living a normal life, free of hospitals and drugs, ever since. She is now 12 years old.
Defense attorneys said that Jennifer Bush’s chronic illnesses were caused by genetics, and that Kathy Bush was a loving mother who did her best to care for he daughter. They said that the state presented no witnesses and that the case was a fraud and that the doctors never disputed the necessity of their surgeries.
Bush met Hillary Clinton during the health care reform debate five years ago
“Kathy didn’t do it.,” argued attorney Robert Buschel. “You would have to believe she outsmarted board certified doctors.”
Because the judge refused to allow prosecutors to argue the syndrome as a motive, the prosecution presented a largely circumstantial case.
Nurses and doctors testified they suspected Kathy Bush tampered with her daughter’s feeding pump, and gave her unprescribed medication. One nurse testified that she once heard Jennifer yelling, “No Mommy, No,” inside her hospital room.
The nurse said she entered the room and saw Jennifer’s mother putting something inside the girl’s mouth. But on cross examination, the nurse acknowledged that Bush could have been brushing her daughter’s teeth.
Neither mother nor daughter testified during the three-month trial. Jason Bush, one of Bush’s sons, did take the stand to defend his mother.
Kathy Bush will be jailed pending a hearing next Tuesday to decide whether her bond will be extended. She had been free on bond throughout the trial.
Kathy Bush and her husband, Craig, face another legal fight with the state. Florida is trying to terminate their parental rights to Jennifer in a separate court action that has not been scheduled.
Oh. my. goodness.
OMG what a horrible story. I had not heard that before. Poor mistreated child.
OMG this is incredible. This story has to get wider play. I couldn’t get to the original article. Are you sure this is the correct link?
WOW, that ought to be a nomination killer.
Several years before Hillary deified Mrs. Bush and elevated Jennifer to poster-child stardom, suspicious medical professionals had already begun questioning the mother's role in making her "beautiful little angel" sick. Nurses complained that Mrs. Bush was force-feeding her child with unnecessary seizure drugs that made her vomit... authorities discovered that while the Bush family claimed poverty because of Jennifer's health problems, they had splurged on trips to the Bahamas and Disney World, house remodeling, and a new Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Dr. Eli Newberger, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School , concluded that nothing in Jennifer's extensive records indicated "that the child has any underlying illness except the suffering she has had to endure as a result of efforts to portray her as needing urgent care." Jennifer was removed from her family in 1996 and has been healthy ever since. And now the final piece of the story that didn't make it onto the front page of USA Today or into the First Lady's talking points: Last week, Kathleen Bush -- Hillary Clinton's once-proud and loud sister in arms -- was sentenced to five years in prison on two counts of aggravated child abuse and one count of fraud. She also pled guilty to a separate count of welfare fraud for misrepresenting $60,000 in assets on Medicaid forms.