SUSPECTED FLORIDA MUNCHAUSEN TRIAL
				July 20 Update (Opening Statements) July 21 Update July 22 Update Aug. 3 Update Aug. 26 Update Sept. 29 Update Oct. 5 Update Oct. 6 Update Oct. 7 (The Verdict)

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Court TV) — Florida prosecutors told jurors Tuesday during closing arguments in Kathy Bush's child abuse trial that Bush was the common factor in her daughter Jennifer's chronic illnesses and should be held accountable for the alleged sabotage of her daughter's health.

"Every time, it circles back to Mrs. Bush," prosecutor Bob Nichols argued. "It just can't be by chance every time."

Since late-July, Bush has been on trial for aggravated child abuse. Florida prosecutors believe that Bush either made her daughter chronically sick or fabricated Jennifer's illnesses over a two-year period. Between August 1993 and April 1995, Bush took Jennifer to the hospital on 130 separate occasions. Jennifer Bush underwent approximately 40 surgeries for chronic illnesses such as immune system deficiency, gastrointestinal problems and seizure disorders. She needed a feeding tube to eat.

Bush has denied abusing her daughter, claiming Jennifer was legitimately and critically ill. According to Bush's attorney, Robert Buschel, Jennifer had a gastrointestinal illness and immune system deficiency disorder that was genetic. Her older brothers suffered from the same illnesses but are now healthy. However, since being taken out of her mother's care and placed with foster parents, prosecutors claim Jennifer's health has improved drastically. Bush's defense says that Jennifer's health began to improve before she was taken away from her mother.

Prosecutor Nichols urged jurors in closings to remember the testimony of treating nurses, doctors and child abuse experts who said that Jennifer's condition frequently deteriorated when her mother visited. According to the nurses' testimony, when Bush would visit her daughter, she would draw the curtains and close the door. Then the trouble would begin.

"What appeared to be a healthy, happy child earlier proved to be a child who was pale, sweating, vomiting, retching for a good hour after her visit," said one nurse, Patricia Poirier.

Jacqueline Edwards, a nurse who is now regional manager for Coral Springs Medical Center, said that just before scheduled discharges, Kathy would visit and Jennifer's condition would worsen. Edwards recounted how on one occasion, Kathy Bush emerged from her daughter's hospital room and announced Jennifer couldn't be released because she'd just suffered a seizure.

Nichols also suggested that Bush tampered with her daughter's medication and feeding tubes. He reminded jurors that nurses testified that Kathy Bush's handwriting appeared on doctor's orders, that Jennifer had high, sometimes toxic, levels of a medication in her system, and that feeding pumps mysteriously speeded up after Bush's visits.

When prosecutors first charged Kathy Bush with child abuse they alleged that she suffers from Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy, an illness that causes parents to harm their children or fabricate illnesses in their children to get attention for themselves. They intended to prove she suffered from the mental disorder at the beginning of the trial.

But prosecutors encountered trouble even before the trial began. They seemed unable to overcome a pretrial ruling by presiding Judge Victor Tobin that prohibited specific mention of Bush's alleged Munchausen disorder until evidence about it was introduced in court. In late July, Judge Tobin even had to suspend the trial for a week to give prosecutors a chance to organize some 3,000 pages of Jennifer's voluminous medical records.

By the end of trial testimony, prosecutors had backed away from their Munchausen theory, avoiding specific mention of the disease while having witnesses suggest that Bush fabricated or induced her daughter's illnesses.

Bush defense's will present closing arguments Wednesday, and jury deliberations could begin that night. If convicted of child abuse, Kathy Bush could face 15 years in prison.

—Bryan Robinson