Woman drained blood from son

A DANISH woman has been sentenced to four years in jail for draining more than a pint of blood from her young son as often as once a week over a five-year period.

The court in western Denmark, said the 36-year-old woman – a trained nurse – performed 110 drains using a catheter on the boy between the ages of one and six. She told hospital doctors that his low blood-count was due to a rare bone marrow disease.

A psychiatric report said she suffers from Munchausen syndrome by proxy.