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Monday, June 1, 1998

Mom accused of having Munchausen's disorder, injuring children

By KELLEY SHANNON / Associated Press Writer

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Eight-month-old Joseph Martinez lay quietly in a hospital baby bed, a cluster of tubes and other devices attached to his tiny body.

Beside him sat his seemingly devoted, worried mother.

Alone with her son, Cynthia Martinez did something peculiar, perhaps even criminal.

After glancing around the room, she carefully disconnected Joseph's feeding bag, bent her head down and blew into a tube inserted in her son's little stomach. The baby writhed about, his mouth opening and his head moving from side to side.

Unknown to Ms. Martinez, it all was captured on videotape.

Although Joseph recovered, doctors, social workers and prosecutors allege his mother tried to hurt the baby to prolong his hospital stay and gain further attention for herself. They suspect she had done something similar with at least one older child who'd had heart and breathing problems. And another son had died mysteriously some years before, as had a foster child in her care.

A psychiatrist has diagnosed Ms. Martinez as having Munchausen's syndrome by proxy, a disorder causing mothers to injure their children in order to be seen as dutiful caregivers.

"There were times when she seemed to take great joy and delight in being the mother of a very sick child," said the psychiatrist, Dr. Patrick Holden.

Ms. Martinez insists she never hurt her children and that she was only trying to clear Joseph's feeding tube that day in 1994.

"Poor judgment, but no harm," said her attorney, Laura Galvan Davis, who contends Ms. Martinez's children suffer from a genetic defect that can cause illness and even death.

Today, the 31-year-old mother is fighting for custody of her two youngest sons while facing charges that could lead to a lifetime in prison.

Now remarried to ex-Marine Paul Lyda, Cynthia has a new last name and two more sons, her fifth and sixth children. Neither boy lives with the couple.

Gideon, now 17 months, was whisked away by Child Protective Services workers immediately after his birth in December 1996. The mother never even held her baby.

After Cynthia became pregnant again, the Lydas never told the state she was expecting. The family denies they were hiding anything, saying they were seeking a "non-stressful environment." Nonetheless, Benjamin was taken away hours after his April 6 birth.

"We're faced with what is in the best interest of the children and what is in the best interest of the parents. At this point, this is not the same," said Faye Morgan, a state attorney for Child Protective Services.

Both boys are staying with a foster family while a court determines where they will live permanently. A hearing is scheduled for November.

The Lydas are permitted to see the boys for 90 minutes twice a week, but only while supervised by a state caseworker and only after Ms. Lyda washes herself and puts on a surgical gown.

Gideon, described by one doctor as having "a difficult temperament," seems to be growing used to life as a ward of the state, Paul Lyda testified in a recent temporary custody hearing.

"Although it hurts, he does seem to be bonding with his foster parents," Lyda said, later adding, "This child does not know who his Daddy and Mommy are."

The Lydas have refused to speak with reporters. One of their attorneys said the couple feels bothered by the media "to the point of harassment."

Cynthia's troubles began during her marriage to Air Force Tech. Sgt. David Martinez while they were living in Mesa, Ariz.

Although their first child, Anthony, had a relatively healthy upbringing, their second son, Aaron, suffered seizures. Doctors never understood what caused them before he died of cardiac arrest in 1990 at age 2.

Three years later, a foster child the Martinez family cared for also died at age 2. Joshua had been ill even before moving in with the family.

Investigations into both deaths have not produced enough evidence to file any charges.

After a move to San Antonio, 22-month-old Daniel Martinez, who'd been hospitalized with breathing problems at Wilford Hall Medical Center on Lackland Air Force Base, suffered respiratory and cardiac arrest while in his mother's presence.

He survived the attack, which occurred six months after Joshua's death, but remains in a vegetative state.

Then Joseph, who was born seven months after Daniel's crippling episode, was losing weight and failing to thrive.

After a series of unusual incidents while the boy was at Wilford Hall, Dr. Keith Kerr, the hospital's head of pediatric intensive care, became suspicious.

Some "foreign matter," possibly feces, had been placed in Joseph's intravenous line on Nov. 12, 1994, according to court records and testimony.

Two weeks later, an "unprescribed substance" allegedly was poured into his feeding bag. Then, gauze was placed in Joseph's gastric tube.

With the help of Air Force investigators, Kerr had a hidden video camera installed in Joseph's hospital room.

That is when the boy's mother was seen blowing into her son's stomach tube.

Experts on both sides of the Lyda custody battle over newborn Benjamin agree blowing air into the tube wouldn't necessarily harm the child.

"If you take any one behavior, it doesn't sound that bad," Kerr said. "But if you know the whole story, you'll know how she has deceived people. ... She can explain away anything."

Kerr said he believes the mother was trying to prolong Joseph's hospital stay and trying to cause him to have surgery.

In April, more than three years after the camera caught her blowing into the tube, Cynthia arrived at the Bexar County Courthouse for a custody hearing involving Benjamin when she was arrested by federal authorities.

She was charged with six counts accusing her of endangering and injuring Joseph and Daniel, the two boys hospitalized on the Air Force base. If convicted on all counts, she could face to 212 years in prison. No trial date has been set.

Her three oldest surviving sons - Anthony, 11; Daniel, 6; and Joseph, 4 - live in Arizona with their father, from whom she was divorced in 1995.

The diagnosis of Munchausen's syndrome by proxy is still being debated.

Holden, the psychiatrist who first diagnosed her with the disorder, testified in custody hearings that the seemingly concerned mother deceived hospital workers and fabricated information about cardiac episodes in one of the Martinez boys.

"To me, she seemed to be as much preoccupied by children's medical procedures as by the children themselves," Holden said.

The doctor noted that after the Martinez children were removed from their mother, their medical problems subsided.

"So it's a fairly dramatic reversal," he said.

John Jeffrey, a psychologist who has dealt with Munchausen's cases, disputes that opinion.

"I do not believe there is a real risk to her children because I believe she has been wrongly diagnosed," said Jeffrey, who testified in custody hearings on the family's behalf.

Cynthia is a "conscientious, caring, devoted mother," Jeffrey said, adding that she wasn't tampering with medical devices during her sons' hospital stays because she knew how to use the equipment.

"We're talking about a mother who's been handling chronically ill children with gastric tubes and lines in her home for years," Jeffrey said.

Dr. Susan Palmer, a geneticist testifying on the Lyda family's behalf, said all of Cynthia's children could have a genetic defect inherited from their mother that causes abnormal muscle structure and brain problems.

Her testimony weighed heavily in a decision earlier this month by state District Judge David Peeples to allow the Lydas unsupervised weekend visits with Benjamin. But the judge, swayed by more evidence, changed his mind a week later.

The Lydas' attorneys argue the couple is missing important parenting time because of "absurd charges."

"What about their rights?" said attorney Michael Mery. "It's clear there is no threat to either child, either Gideon or Benjamin."

But Benjamin's appointed attorney, Irene Cadena, maintains the baby must be kept from his mother.

"I have to insist that children have ... a primal right to be safe," she said.