 Kathleen Bush earned the nation s sympathy and admiration as she struggled to care for her grievously sick child. 8 year-old Jennifer was afflicted, her mother claimed, with a variety of complaints, including a rare intestinal condition that had required over 200 hospital stays and nearly 40 surgeries. With no health insurance, Jennifer s family was devastated financially. Largely through the publicity her mother drew to her plight, Jennifer became the "poster child" for health care reform in the early 1990s. Kathy Bush courted so much attention for her chronically ill daughter that the family met with Hillary Clinton and testified before Congress. Then, in a shocking twist, Jennifer s long-suffering mother was arrested on the unthinkable charge of child abuse. Investigators alleged that Kathy Bush had created her daughter s medical problems because she suffered from Munchausen s Syndrome By Proxy (MSBP), a rare phenomenon in which a parent-usually a mother-makes a child ill because the parent craves attention. At the same time of Kathy s arrest, little Jennifer was immediately taken from her mother and placed in foster care. Within weeks, the child s health was restored. Kathleen Bush was convicted of both child abuse and organized fraud, and sentenced to 5 years in prison. Now serving her time, Kathy maintains her innocence and says she is guilty only of keeping Jennifer alive, and that she is the victim. - of the hospital, its vengeful nursing staff, and a state agency that exacted revenge when she complained about them.