re: Gypsy Rose Blanchard released from prison

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Guilty

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Her mother numbed her mouth so she would uncontrollably drool to convince the doctors to surgically remove her salivary glands

Her mother also forced her into a poor dental regimen that meant quite a few of her teeth rotted and fell out/were removed

Add in the forced medications, and many surgeries she was forced to under go…

I’m happy she looks as normal as she does honestly

quote:

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Guilty

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I'm going with "not guilty by means of jury nullification".

Her mother was a fricking monster. Her idea of supporting her child was to falsify that her child was extremely ill in order to defraud charity from others (people, programs, businesses, etc). She shaved her head, allowed her Gypsy's teeth to fall out (due to use of Tegretol, for the epilepsy she didn't have), had her go through multiple surgeries she didn't need, made her use a wheelchair everywhere they went, would not let her have friends (including not visiting with family as well as keeping her out of school), starved her to make her look unhealthy, etc.

The health "problems" started when she was only three months old with the claim by her mother that she had sleep apnea. From there she claimed that Gypsy had epilepsy, muscular dystrophy, leukemia, cancer, asthma, eye problems, hearing problems, chromosomal defects and more. At one point Gypsy tried to escape, but her mother caught her and, using counterfeit papers which fraudulently claimed she was a minor even though she was 19, and then tied her to her bed for two weeks as punishment.

Among some of the largess her mother defrauded others out of were:

-Habitat for Humanity giving them a house with a wheelchair ramp and a jacuzzi tub (supposedly for Gypsy's muscles)
-donations and charity trips which included flying across the country to conferences, galas and to see doctors
-Make-A-Wish paid for a trip to Walt Disney World
-Gypsy got to meet country singer Miranda Lambert and then-husband Blake Shelton (Lambert gave Gypsy's mother a check for $3,500)
-Gypsy got to meet Elijah Wood and Sean Astin as part of a charity event

The show The Act (on Hulu) did as solid a job of telling the story as Hollywood can manage, but there were a few differences.