Accused mom was active in preemie issue

KXAN (Austin) - Friends and acquaintances of Emily McDonald describe the young mother as a leader in the preemie community before she faced charges of smearing feces on her child's IV, causing the girl to stay sick.

In the two days since a  hospital surveillance camera caught her actions and police say she confessed, McDonald has been telling friends the media has it wrong.

"If you only knew what they do with stories like this," McDonald said in an online conversation with an acquaintance.

McDonald is accused of injury to a child, a felony punishable by life in prison, after hospital surveillance cameras put caught her wiping feces on her 3-year-old daughter's IV in Dell Children's Hospital.

Police say she knew that what she was doing would prolong her daughter's hospital stay - prompting theories by some in the medical community that she may have been sickening her daughter to gain attention for herself, a syndome known as Munchausen by proxy.

"She has a blog and has been seen as an advocate for kids for prematurly born kids and a real support for family. That is really common in Munchausen syndrome by proxy," said Dr. Jim Van Norman of Austin/Travis Co. Mental Health. "The other possibility is, did she have visions of, 'Can I write a book about my ordeals with premature kids, and ultimately I am going to get rich.' That's just something for defense and prosecuting attorneys to parse out about motivations."

McDonald, who gave birth to two children prematurely, was well-known throughout the online premature-support-group community. Some of those who knew the 23-year-old said McDonald, a mother of three, would often give advice to other parents with premature children.

"People online cannot believe that she did this. They are stunned," said a online acquaintance who asked to stay anonymous. "Nobody saw this coming."

"(I'm) completely shocked. It's something I never thought she would do," said Emily Isbell, a friend of McDonald's. "It's just hard for everybody to deal with and cope with. ... "

Looking back, however, Isbell said she sees some signs that something might have been amiss.

"Different things she would write on her blog that would happen to the little girl that wouldn't happen to a three-year-old, and it could only be done by an adult," Isbell said. "Or something she would write on her blog that would sound a little bit off."

Her online acquaintance, in hindsight, said she saw similar warning signs.

"There were tons of red flags and I couldn't believe I didn't see it," said the online acquaintance. "All the time her daughter had this cycle of being really sick and then she'd get better. And then all of a sudden when she's starting to develop and act more like a normal kid, (and) out of the blue there'd be another sickness. Something else would be wrong and the child would end up right back at the hospital."

"I mean this would happen anytime she would talk about marital problems or problems with [school]... all of a sudden her daughter got sick."

In an online chat with the acquaintance, McDonald suggests that the media got the story wrong and that one day she the truth will come out. The friend, who asked that her name not be used, lashed out at McDonald in a short online conversation she provided to KXAN. The usernames have been changed.

Friend: So how goes putting (feces) in your kid's feeding line you evil excause (sic) for a person?

McDonald: I see you take everything the media says at face value. if only you knew what they do with stories like this

Friend: yes because video tape lies

McDonald: I can't speak to anything so believe what you want.

Friend: i am just glad they caught you before [your child] died. you need help. believe it or not, you are being prayed for. you just need help. lots of it. good luck to you and i hope your kids are ok

McDonald: I appreciate the prayers. We all do. One day I will be free to talk about all of this.

Friend: it is my sincere hope that they throw the book at you. no. i would rather you be as sick as [your child] and then have someone do the exact same thing to you that you did to her. you are a sick person. you confessed. you are on camera. you almost killed her and it would not suprise me if that is what you tried to do. i am glad you failed. i hope your kids are happy and healthy and that you get psychiatric help and medication and are no longer monster one day. then, i hope that they let you see them again but under the heaviest of surveliances. you have hurt a lot of people beyond your daughter......especially your family.

 

McDonald's child had spent most of her young life in and out of the hospital, beginning when she was born prematurely - an ordeal that McDonald catalogued in online journals, YouTube videos and interviews with local media.

"She's always been just real involved with them (parents of preemies) and kind of like the spokesperson," Isbell said.

An example of her commitment to the "preemie" community - a nickname for children who were born prematurely and the parents of those children - McDonald was a "family support" volunteer at the March of Dimes neonatal intensive-care unit at Seton Medical Center Austin from July 2008 to April 2009.

According to a statement released from Greg Hartman, senior vice president of Seton Family of Hospitals , as a March of Dimes volunteer, McDonald offered parent-to-parent support to families with infants who were being treated in the NICU. McDonald did not have direct patient contact and was under the supervision of the NICU staff while volunteering.

Consistent with Seton Family of Hospitals’ policies for screening volunteers, Seton conducted a criminal background check on McDonald which showed no offenses.

In April 2009, McDonald ended her service as a volunteer.

It was in April that McDonald's child got sick and was admitted to Dell Children's Hospital -- in the same family of hospitals where she volunteered. It was there that hospital staff grew suspicious of her actions and caught her, on camera, putting fecal matter into her daughter's IV.

McDonald confessed to doing this five times during her daughter's stay at the hospital and admitted that she knew this would  this would make her daughter sick.

The online friend said that looking back, she saw a pattern in McDonald's personal life and her daughters' illnesses.

"I mean, this would happen anytime she would talk about marital problems or problems with [school]... all of a sudden her daughter got sick," the friend said. "I think she wanted three healthy children and to become a nurse and unfortunately, I'm suspicious that her daughter got in the way of that. Well, she wrote in her blog that because of her daughter's health problems, she could no longer go to nursing school. She had to withdraw. And then a week later her daughters in the intensive care unit fighting for her life."