Gypsy Rose Blanchard Describes Unsettling Doctor's Visits
By Kelly Coffey-Behrens on December 28, 2023 at 1:45 PM EST
Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who conspired to kill her mom due to years of abuse, described the many doctor visits and surgeries she endured as a child.
Dee Dee Blanchard, Gypsy's mother, had convinced many doctors that her daughter had various diseases and medical conditions, including asthma, cancer, down syndrome, epilepsy, and others.
When describing the many doctors and hospital visits, Gypsy stated that her mother would do all the talking:
"I always had this stuffed animal or a Barbie doll, [and Dee Dee would] just tell me [to] 'play with your Barbie doll and when the doctor comes to examine me, just stay in the wheelchair; be calm; play with your doll, and don't move your legs'."
Gypsy Rose Blanchard Underwent Multiple Surgeries During Hospital Visits
Gypsy Rose underwent multiple surgeries during her hospital visits, including gastrointestinal operations, eye procedures, and the removal of her salivary glands.
"I was just as much in the dark as much as everyone else," Gypsy stated in the 2017 documentary 'Mommy Dead and Dearest'. "[The] only thing I knew is that I could walk. As for everything else, the leukemia the epilepsy, I was taking medication that [Dee Dee] said was cancer medicine."
Gypsy went on to describe how her mother went as far as shaving her head because "it's going to fall out anyway, so let's just keep it nice and neat."
As for how Dee Dee got away with tricking the doctors, it is believed that the medications she gave Gypsy "induced many of the symptoms of diseases [that] doctors thought they were treating."
Over the course of nine years, Dee Dee took Gypsy Rose to the hospital over 100 times, per medical conditions.
Following the documentary and Gypsy Rose's recent prison release, many individuals are demanding the doctors be held accountable for the years of abuse that she endured.
In 2017, Kristy Blanchard, Gypsy’s stepmom, stated that she and the rest of the family were trying to hold the doctors accountable, but no one wanted to take the case, per Yahoo. There have been no updates regarding the legal action Kristy wanted to take since.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard's Case Goes Viral
Gypsy Rose's case gained the public and media's attention, even leading to a 2017 MAX documentary titled 'Mommy Dead and Dearest' and a Hulu series called 'The Act'.
For those who are not familiar with the case, Dee Dee Blanchard was found stabbed to death in her home in Springfield, Missouri in 2015. Her daughter, Gypsy Rose, and Gypsy's then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, were named suspects after a series of text messages were recovered by police, describing the murder plot in detail.
In 2016, Gypsy Rose was put on trial for her connection to her mother's murder. It was later revealed that Gypsy was not actually sick, and her mother had been forging her medical history and leading the public to believe that her daughter was sick. Dee Dee even convinced doctors to give her unnecessary medical treatments, such as surgeries.
After Gypsy Rose discovered her mother was abusing her, she convinced her then-boyfriend to help murder her mother. Dee Dee was stabbed to death in her home.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard went to trial, and ended up pleading guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. She had to complete 85% of her sentence before being eligible for parole.
On Thursday, December 28, Gypsy Rose was released from prison on parole.