An Indiana mother named Katherine Jackson, 41 was charged with fraud and neglect after allegedly lying about her daughter's disease, claiming it to be terminal. Her alleged lying caught the eye of the Make-A-Wish Foundation which granted her and her daughter a trip to Disney World. Jackson also allegedly failed to fill her daughter's medication, leading to the child suffering from seizures and irregular heartbeat.
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WANE talked about Jackson's daughter, Olivia, back in 2022. According to them, Olivia was the smallest child ever born in Indiana, with her weighing only six ounces and measuring 12 inches when she was born on July 24, 2016. She spent eight weeks in the NICU.
She faced developmental delays which eventually led to doctors diagnosing her with an extremely rare genetic disorder in 2021. "Only ten people in the whole world ever had it and she's the only survivor," Katherine Jackson, said at the time. "It's called Pilarowski-Bjornsson Syndrome. She will never get better."
"Ultimately she has months left with us. That's what doctors say. However, she writes her own story," Jackson continued. "You can give me as many months or weeks as you think, but you're not God. You're not her. She's sassy and she's got a lot of fight."
Disney Trip
Jackson set up a GoFundMe in 2021, which detailed that Olivia also suffered from an additional disease called Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome. It caused her to suffer from several seizures a day.
It was Olivia's heartbreaking story that led her to be contacted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation in 2019. While they approved for Olivia, her sister, and her mother, Katherine, to go on a trip to Disney World, the COVID pandemic soon canceled the plans.
Olivia, however, did receive a parade in 2020. A year later, Give Kids the World Village and Majically organized a birthday party for her and 200 guests, helping her dress up as Elsa from Frozen.
Unexpected Turn
Three weeks after WANE first ran Olivia's story, Katherine Jackson took her to a local hospital. Medical staff became worried about Olivia's health status and soon found evidence of medical child abuse due to her worrying symptoms.
Doctors eventually made a troublesome discovery. Jackson had not been refilling her daughter's medications. Moreover, according to WANE, investigators later discovered that Olivia's condition, while real, was chronic and not terminal as Jackson presented it to the public.
In 2022, both Olivia and her sister were taken away from Katherine and placed in foster care. Their foster parents revealed that both girls were not potty trained and were not in school.
Katherine Jackson now faces a count of felony fraud and two counts of neglect of a dependent. No court dates have been set yet.
