Who is Sophie Hartman? White mom made Black daughter, 6, undergo unnecessary surgeries, 470 treatments
RENTON, WASHINGTON: A White mother is accused of faking her six-year-old adopted Black daughter's illness and forcing the child to undergo numerous unnecessary surgeries and more than 470 medical treatments, authorities said. As per court documents, Sophie Hartman had been taking her adopted daughter to appointments since she was around two years old, and now faces charges of second-degree assault of a child and second-degree attempted assault of a child after subjecting her daughter to hundreds of medical appointments to treat AHC, a disease she didn’t have, for four years.
She has also been accused of subjecting her to what doctors have called an “unnecessary medical procedure” -- a surgically implanted feeding tube. She was also implanted with a cecostomy tube, reportedly to help flush the intestines. The little girl was also made to wear leg braces and made to use a wheelchair despite doctors insisting that they were not needed. The child’s adopted mother was also asking for a surgical hormonal implant to suppress the early onset of puberty, prosecutors said.
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Who is Sophie Hartman?
As per reports, 31-year-old Hartman was charged after the child, who has been identified only with her initials CH in court documents, underwent a 16-day observation for her numerous ailments and treatments. “At no point during her admission were there any findings or reported symptoms to support any of her prior diagnoses,” the charging document, filed on May 24, said.
The documents claim that in early 2019 a group of specialists and providers at Seattle Children's Hospital contacted the Safe Child and Adolescent Network regarding Hartman. A report co-authored by four medical professionals on the child’s care team, reviewed and signed by the medical director for Seattle Children’s Hospital, called the risk to the child "profound."
"This situation is a case of medical child abuse," the report said. "It is not necessary to know the possible motivation of a caregiver, only the outcome of the behavior. It is my concern that this pattern has resulted in unnecessary medical testing, medication, procedures, surgeries, and debility of this child." The report further said, “All the available evidence obtained during the course of her admission suggests CH is a healthy young 6-year-old who would continue to benefit from a de-escalation of medical support and normalization of her childhood experience.”
The report was sent to the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families in February 2021, which in turn contacted the Renton Police Department. Hartman is now facing charges over "medical child abuse" allegations. It has also been alleged that fundraisers were carried out and Hartman used those funds to purchase a wheelchair-accessible vehicle.
As per reports, the child was adopted from Zambia in Africa when she was an infant. In a 2018 Make-a-Wish video, Hartman claimed the child had alternating hemiplegia of childhood (AHC), a rare neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by repeated episodes of weakness or paralysis. She said in the video, "At any given time, she can go paralyzed", adding, "She can lose the ability to talk and go into all different types of seizures and have extreme pain. It's really tough.”
In the same video, she also said, "Doctors, even the best pediatric specialists, do not know what to do and do not have treatment options… she needs access to oxygen because her breathing shallows and slows; she depends on her feeding tube when she's unable to eat."
Reportedly, while search warrants found that Hartman's daughter was diagnosed with AHC, medical providers told detectives the diagnosis was based on the information given to them by Hartman regarding her daughter's symptoms. It was reportedly noted that these symptoms, including severe seizures, had not been observed by anyone other than Hartman. In fact, during the course of the investigation, a doctor from Seattle Children's Hospital told detectives medical findings suggest the child does not have the disease.
Hartman's attorneys issued a statement saying, "Despite overwhelming objective evidence in the medical record supporting this diagnosis, the King County Prosecuting Attorney has charged Ms Hartman with assault of a child in the second degree and attempted assault. These charges are based on false statements and misrepresentations of the medical record by a doctor at Seattle Children’s Hospital who has never seen the child or spoken with Ms Hartman. Ms Hartman is innocent of these charges.”
It also said, “Contrary to the allegations of the King County Prosecuting Attorney, the child’s diagnosis was made by more than one doctor, is legitimate, and is based on a substantial record beyond the reports and information provided by Ms Hartman. That record includes independent medical examinations by multiple doctors, direct observation of the child by doctors and nurses at Duke and at Seattle Children’s Hospital, standardized testing results, videotapes of the child’s symptoms, MRI, EEG, and other diagnostic tests. The King County Prosecuting Attorney has the medical records from Duke as well as records from Seattle Children’s Hospital amply supporting the diagnosis and the consistent reports of Ms Hartman.”
The attorney added that the child’s medical records were reviewed by Dr Eli Newberger, a medical child abuse doctor with 40 years of experience, who has advised the King County Prosecuting Attorney that filing charges against Ms Hartman is a "miscarriage of justice."