How a Mother’s Deception Led To Tragedy – The HEARTBREAKING Case of Olivia Gant

1. Introduction & The Heartbreaking Loss

This video footage is deceiving. What seems like a loving mother is actually a wolf in sheep’s clothing. These videos of a terminally ill little girl having her final wishes granted hold a disturbing secret—a secret only her mother knows. This is the story of a mother’s worst betrayal. She won our hearts as “Bat Princess” Olivia Gant, living out her wish as a superhero on a Make-A-Wish Day in 2017. Now, her mother is fighting charges that she faked her daughter’s illness and murdered the girl when Olivia was seven years old.

“Happy birthday to you…” “And I’m Olivia, and we’re making a cake, right?” “Yes.” “She opened her eyes, looked at me, recognized me, and said, ‘Papa, I’m hungry.’ She was hungry. Two days later, she died.”

A mother’s love can be one of the most powerful forces in the world. Most mothers would give their own life to protect their child. The love between mother and child can be one of the strongest, most beautiful bonds—even in the animal world, a mother can become a deadly force to be reckoned with if she feels her offspring is in danger. I think that’s what makes Olivia’s story so horrific. She lived only seven short years, and every day she was on this Earth, she was wrought with pain and suffering, all at the hands of her mother. Olivia’s mother, Kelly Turner, medically tortured her since birth and played games with medical professionals. She was somehow able to convince doctors to perform unnecessary procedures on Olivia that eventually led to her death.

2. Olivia’s Early Life and the Mother’s Blog

Olivia Gant was born on June 21, 2010, in Pasadena, Texas, where she lived with her mother Kelly Turner, her two sisters, and her father, John Gant. She left an indelible mark on those who knew her and was described by her grandfather, Lonnie Groth, as a loving child: “She just had a great imagination and loved playing with her dolls.” Olivia’s vibrant energy, caring nature, and zest for life made her a joy to be around. She was affectionately called “Livy” by her family, and she, in turn, referred to her grandfather as “Papa.” Olivia was absolutely adorable and never met a stranger. She should still be here; she would be 14 years old now, probably getting ready to start high school. The only consolation I find in her death is that she is no longer in pain at the hands of Kelly Turner.

From the moment of Olivia’s birth, Kelly would find things she thought were wrong with Olivia and bring those issues to her doctor’s attention. In 2011, when Olivia was just a year old, Kelly started an online blog detailing Olivia’s alleged medical issues to garner sympathy and support. The first page of the blog, Kelly called “A Little Background.” She talks about when Olivia’s medical conditions started and describes in detail what they were. Let’s read through some of this blog; it’ll give us some insights into what was going on in Kelly’s head and how this journey of deception and betrayal started:

“Olivia was born premature and was, other than that, a little healthy—or so we thought. At around her 9-month checkup, her pediatrician noticed that she was not developing mentally or physically, and that her head was growing off the chart. After a trip to the orthotics place and a referral to the neurologist, we thought we would simply get a helmet to reshape her skull and all would be well. Don’t ever count your chickens before they hatch.

An MRI of the brain at the neuro office showed that Olivia had a vascular malformation of the brain. Further testing determined that it was inoperable. What came with that? The possibility of seizures, blindness, an aneurysm, stroke, or death. It was decided that she would be monitored every few months. The next MRI led them to do an ultrasound because something in her neck looked different. So, we have now discovered that there is a tumor on the parotid gland in her neck. What comes with that, you may wonder? Deafness in the right ear, trouble swallowing, and trouble chewing.

So, in the course of time from when Olivia began seeing the doctor for specific things in her short life, we have now turned two in June, extended our diagnosis list, and have been to several doctors before we found one actually able to test and treat Olivia—and we found them in Denver, Colorado.”

If a physician or specialist did not agree with what Kelly thought was wrong with Olivia, she would do what’s called “doctor shopping.” Most doctor shoppers go to different physicians in order to get prescriptions for controlled substances, but in Kelly’s case, she was doctor shopping for physicians who would give her the diagnosis she was looking for. She apparently found some medical professionals in Colorado who might go along with her delusions, so she relocated to Littleton, Colorado, with her daughters. Olivia’s father, John Gant, couldn’t leave his job in Texas, so he stayed behind. I couldn’t find much information on John Gant or on the relationship between him and Kelly; news articles have stated they were married, and some have stated they had a tumultuous relationship.

Let’s get back to the blog:

“Olivia, at the age of two, is an autistic child with an inoperable vascular malformation, a tumor on the parotid gland, external hydrocephalus (too much water on the outside of the brain), developmental delay, L-carnitine deficiency, a seizure disorder, and celiac disease.

Fast forward, and Olivia is now 4 and a half years old. She is just a ball full of energy and love. She is the strongest little girl I have ever met, although her sisters do put up a good fight as well. However, her diagnosis list is still pretty long. Olivia, at the age of four, has hydrocephalus, a seizure disorder, focal cortical dysplasia, autism, intestinal dysmotility, a loop ostomy, a vascular malformation in the brain, a tumor on the parotid gland, and developmental delays.

On November 11, the start of a very long journey began. After months of not being able to use the bathroom and being in extreme pain almost constantly, the great doctors decided that surgery to put in a colostomy was necessary. After the surgery, there have been ups and downs. On December 11, Olivia was transported back to the hospital where she had what is called an intestinal prolapse. The on-call surgeon put her to sleep enough to push the intestines back in. There were several discussions about operating, but Dr. Lamb has seen her the past few weeks and felt that, in Olivia’s best interest, she needed Dr. Beer, who operated on her on day one, to fix this. He said for her sake, consistency with the doctor is what was important.”

Here in her blog, she’s actually admitting that a physician is telling her to keep things consistent and refer back to the original doctor regarding medical decisions for Olivia. As a side note, I still do not understand—I can’t even comprehend—how these unnecessary procedures were able to happen when we’re dealing with a completely healthy child. But I digress; we’ll go over more of that as the video goes on.

“We are in the beginning stages of forming a benefit to happen around June 2015. Please share, like, and follow so that we can get the word out and help this sweet little girl with all the hospital bills she is incurring. If you would like additional information or would like to donate, please comment below.”

This one blog post lists 11 medical issues Olivia had according to her mother. Now, I’m not a doctor, but if you are anything like me, that blog post just doesn’t sit right. She lists:

1. Vascular malformation of the brain

2. A tumor on the parotid gland in her neck

3. Autism

4. External hydrocephalus

5. L-carnitine deficiency

6. Seizure disorder

7. Celiac disease

8. Cortical dysplasia

9. Intestinal dysmotility

10. Loop ostomy

11. Developmental delays

According to an article in The Denver Post, some of Kelly’s claims in her blog were absolutely nonsensical. For example, in one of her posts, she vented about doctors failing to note that the membrane in the corpus luteum in Olivia’s brain was thinning. The corpus luteum is a structure in the ovary, not the brain. That’s just an example of the inconsistencies between Kelly recounting Olivia’s health online versus what her actual medical records revealed.

3. The Escalation of Medical Abuse

After the move to Colorado in 2012, there would be thousands of visits to Children’s Hospital Colorado. In early visits, Kelly reported Olivia had a history of seizures and feeding difficulties, among other health issues. At some point, Olivia had been prescribed anti-seizure medication. It’s not clear if that was prescribed by a doctor in Texas or Colorado, but in July of 2014, a neurologist in Colorado determined Olivia did not have seizures and advised Kelly to take her off the medication. Kelly would not follow the neurologist’s instructions and kept administering the anti-seizure medication to Olivia.

To address Kelly’s complaints about Olivia’s feeding issues, doctors first referred Olivia to therapy for picky eating. But Kelly insisted the problem was ongoing and that Olivia was also struggling with severe constipation. It’s unclear how many visits and complaints from Kelly it took to get to this point, but in November of 2014, Olivia underwent an ostomy, which creates a hole in the abdomen so that waste can drain directly from the small intestine to a bag. Her constipation improved, but Kelly reported she wouldn’t eat, and a feeding tube was put in through her nose.

In January of 2015, a more permanent feeding tube was inserted through Olivia’s abdomen, replacing the temporary tube in her nose. A different type of tube would be placed surgically shortly afterward. In June of 2015, Olivia had another surgery to place a tube to feed her through her veins—a process called Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN). She underwent feeding therapy at the hospital and improved her ability to eat normal foods.

In July of 2015, Kelly first posted online that Olivia had a terminal illness. Her medical records show no such disease. In 2016, Olivia received escalating doses of painkillers. Sometime in 2017, Kelly reached out to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, telling them Olivia was terminally ill and listing her final wishes. In February of 2017, the foundation hosted a “Bat Princess” party for Olivia. Olivia was also able to do a ride-along with the police department, and the fire department hosted an event for her as well.

In March of 2017, Olivia underwent her final surgery: a procedure implanting a tube in her bladder, which drained through her abdomen. On March 24, 2017, Kelly requested that Olivia not be resuscitated if her heart stopped, or given naloxone if her breathing stopped because of the large doses of opioids she was receiving.

4. The Hospice Transition and Starvation

From March 27th through 28th, 2017, Olivia’s care team raised concerns that the amount of stool in Olivia’s ostomy bag and the amount recorded in her chart didn’t add up. This is important because the amount of stool is a clue to how well Olivia’s intestines are functioning. A monitor was assigned to the room, and the amount of stool improved significantly. Doctors weren’t sure if she improved on her own, if the medicine they gave helped, or if the monitor prevented tampering.

On March 29, 2017, Turner requested that Olivia be placed in hospice. On July 11, 2017, a doctor refused to renew an order not to resuscitate Olivia if her heart stopped, or to give her naloxone if she overdosed on prescribed opioids, precipitating a series of ethics meetings. The hospital’s Child Protection Team found “no reason to alert the Department of Human Services to potential medical child abuse,” according to Olivia’s medical records. A different doctor later signed the order.

On August 1, 2017, Olivia was transferred to hospice. She was happy to leave the hospital; she was happy to have all the tubes removed and sang songs on the way, feeling free for just a brief moment. Olivia had no idea she was being sent to her death. When she arrived, they settled her in, she received pain medication, and for 19 days, she starved. For 19 days, Kelly Turner sat there and watched Olivia suffer, watched her dying, knowing all of this was completely unnecessary and was the result of years of her lies and manipulations.

On August 20, 2017, Olivia died. She was buried at Seven Stones Chatfield Cemetery in Littleton, Colorado. Here are some excerpts from Olivia’s obituary:

“Sunday, August 20, we lost our little princess Olivia after a long battle to a rare disease at the age of seven. Olivia was with us a very short time, but through her short life and big battles, she taught us that we can be joyful in all things. After many operations and numerous stays in the hospital, Olivia always came home with a smile. She would be overjoyed to see her big sisters and ready to play with them immediately. She became known as ‘the princess’ after always wearing her princess dresses while in the hospital—no hospital gowns for Olivia. Through her many stays in Children’s Hospital Colorado, most people there loved and cherished the princess.

She loved school and was able to attend Pre-K, kindergarten, and part of first grade at Columbine Hills Elementary before her health began to decline more rapidly. That was the highlight of her life: being at school with her teachers and friends. At home, Olivia loved playing with her sisters, being on her iPad, or watching her DVDs. She had an unbelievable imagination that would entertain herself and others for hours. Her mouth never stopped but would give others such joy and laughter. When she was able, her favorite places to visit were Dairy Queen, the zoo, and Dinosaur Ridge. She loved vanilla ice cream cones, lions, and can tell you almost anything about dinosaurs and sharks. It was only the last month that playing and talking began to cease.

Our precious little princess will now have a new body: no tubes, no more pain or sickness, and everlasting joy with our Lord. See you in heaven, our precious Olivia, you and your hero with our Lord.”

5. Uncovering the Deception

Not much is known about Kelly Turner’s life outside of Olivia’s tragedy, but she did have a criminal record in Texas. Her past criminal record sheds some light on what kind of person she was. The forgery charge makes sense, given that Olivia’s tragedy is rooted in her defrauding everyone ever involved with Olivia. Impersonation of a medical technician seems to show some sick fascination with the medical field. Last but definitely not least, she was charged with felony assault with bodily injury on a child. My God, I read that and was horrified. She ended up having three children of her own. Her criminal history paints a picture of subhuman traits. In my book, she was already hurting children before she even had her own, and this was Olivia’s mother. Not much else needs to be said about her; my heart just breaks for this innocent baby girl who never stood a chance.

Fast forward to October of 2018. Kelly brings Olivia’s sister to a new primary care physician, Dr. Courtney Santucci, after her original primary care physician had retired. She expressed concerns her daughter was having bone pain. Kelly told the physician that she was previously treated for lymphoma in Texas and stated she had cancer. Dr. Santucci noticed Olivia’s sister did not have any scars associated with cancer treatment and contacted the family’s former physicians in Texas. She found out that she had never been diagnosed or treated for cancer. The doctor reported her findings, which led to a child abuse case being filed with the state, and an investigation began.

Because of Olivia’s untimely death, the investigation into child abuse on her sister sparked Colorado Children’s Hospital’s Child Protection Team to be notified. The team alerted the Department of Human Services with concerns about Kelly Turner medically harming Olivia and her surviving sister. Within days, authorities interviewed Olivia’s sister at school and told Kelly she had to move out of the family’s home, separating her from Olivia’s surviving sisters pending further investigation.

6. The Failure of the Medical System

During the investigation, it was found that some doctors and nurses at Children’s Hospital Colorado had raised concerns that Olivia was being medically harmed by her mother weeks before she died, but none of them reported their suspicions, despite the state’s mandated reporting laws. Instead, the hospital investigated those concerns internally through its own Child Protection Team and had a series of ethics meetings. They relied, in part, on false information provided by Olivia’s mother. They concluded there was no reason to alert outside authorities to potential child abuse. It’s been reported that a 2016 hospital written policy instructs its medical providers to submit concerns of child abuse to the hospital’s internal Child Protection Team, which then decides if outside authorities should be alerted. That seems like an authoritarian way to protect the hospital’s interests, not the children’s—just my opinion.

The investigation also revealed how Children’s Hospital Colorado, known to be a leader in recognizing child abuse, discounted doctors’ and nurses’ concerns and missed potential warning signs. Olivia’s medical records didn’t clearly show how doctors determined her intestines were failing, which led to the invasive ileostomy procedure. A month before intestinal failure was listed on Olivia’s medical records, staff documented her eating small amounts of food with no apparent problems and maintaining a stable weight.

After the ostomy procedure, providers at the hospital noticed discrepancies between how much discharge they saw in Olivia’s stoma bag and how much was recorded in her medical records. The discharge was an important indicator of how well her intestines were working, and when Olivia’s caregivers reported the discrepancies, Dr. Deborah Night ordered her to be monitored one-on-one for 24 hours. This decision made Kelly very upset, and she protested the decision, stating they were trying to punish her and thought she was being a bad mother.

During the investigation, a nurse’s aide spoke of Kelly often becoming indignant, taking concerns to supervising nurses, or calling doctors directly. It was also revealed that Olivia became somewhat of a poster child for the hospital due to her frequent stays. She was pictured in brochures, featured in fundraisers, and the nurse’s aide stated the staff would “jump through hoops” for Kelly because Olivia was so public and Kelly had them in a vice grip.

The hospital went through with 24-hour monitoring and noted the stoma bag output dramatically improved and increased to a normal range. The timing of the improvement raised concerns according to notes written by Dr. Night. At a later hospital stay, Kelly urged the doctor on overnight duty to double Olivia’s dose of opioid medication. The doctor pushed back and stated the dose she was requesting could knock a child unconscious and stop their breathing; he declined to increase the dosage.

7. Law Enforcement Interviews with Hospital Staff

I was able to gather some video footage from physicians and hospital staff interviewing with law enforcement that I’d like to play for you now. I feel like it gives insight as to what the physicians and hospital staff were dealing with and what they were thinking. I will say, though, there’s a lot of excuses in these videos, and by the time I was done watching them, I was quite infuriated. You’ll have to let me know what you guys think, but I definitely think we need to watch these; it’s going to help us understand what they were thinking when they were dealing with Olivia and her mother, Kelly.

Here is an interview with the floor manager of the hospital when Olivia was there, talking about Olivia’s opioid use and how they were trying to lower the dosage:

“When he came in, it appeared she had a lot of sedating-type medications, and we had been slowly withdrawing some of those medications. We were still giving some of them, but at decreased doses. As we did that, Olivia was perking back up and was awake and talking to people, interacting with people, and seemed to kind of go back to the patient that we knew or were familiar with, I guess.

At that point, I believe Kelly wanted to continue with the hospice care and wanted to start withdrawing other care, such as feedings and things like that. When that happened, some of my nursing staff came to me and they were somewhat upset with that decision. They didn’t feel that that seemed appropriate based on where Olivia currently was. I mean, at that point, she was asking to go home; she was definitely, I think, more interactive and more engaging.

They came to me and were concerned. Ethics did come in and explained, you know, based on her diagnosis, based on the symptoms that we feel like she’s experiencing at home from information that we had gathered from Kelly, that this was appropriate—that it met the definition of being something that would be life-threatening. So, based on the information that they had, that’s why they were supporting that decision.

Most parents are really invested in us doing everything possible for their kids, sometimes even beyond the point that it’s going to be beneficial anymore and it’s not going to be helpful. Even when you try to convince them to say, ‘If you really want this, we’ll do this, but it’s not going to change the outcome…’ I mean, they are so invested in prolonging their child’s life and doing everything possible to be hopeful and to think, ‘If we hang on a little bit longer, there might be a new med, a new discovery…’ That’s kind of what most parents are going for. I never got that feeling from Kelly.”

Another medical provider stated in their interview:

“We did have a meeting with them, and she did express extreme discomfort—that she really did not feel that Kelly was making the appropriate decision. What the Child Protection Team asked us… they said for us to be able to report it, ‘What evidence do you have of that? Has Kelly said anything to you? Has anything…?’ They asked a lot of questions, like, ‘We need to have some type of… I don’t know if evidence is a good way to put it, but we have to have something to support why we are reporting, or we can’t report.’ And I think she just… like, we couldn’t come up with concrete examples or evidence, I guess, other than ‘This doesn’t feel right. This is not like it normally is for other kids. We’re just not positive we believe Kelly anymore.’ And the team was kind of like, ‘Well, we have to have more than I didn’t believe her because there were discrepancies that just didn’t quite make sense.'”

A doctor noted during their interview:

“Medicine tests are not perfect. We have stuff like this all the time where you’re like, ‘Well, really, maybe we should repeat that test because it doesn’t make sense,’ right? But it was just one after another after another. When you ask for it, the small bowel transit looks amazing, and you know, there’s stool coming out of every orifice. Nobody sees that when she comes into the hospital service, and nobody notes that or writes that down, right? Then, of course, there’s the developmental note, and then I see that there’s more and more. She says, ‘Oh no, no, we’re using it very sparingly,’ but I can see… it’s like she was playing games with me, right?

I mean, Monday morning quarterback, right? At the time, in fact, she was just in the hospital and just had surgery. So, there’s always a feasible or possible explanation. For pain, we have no test. So, the mother says she’s in terrible pain, and then I even said, ‘She looks pretty good.’ ‘Oh, it’s a good day.’ Thirty doctors might have taken care of this kid, or more, and somehow, she navigated these waters well.

I have to say, I think that this is the perfect diagnosis to lie about. Why do you say that? Because our tests for motility are far from perfect, right? And motility testing is already compromised by a child that has had a lot of surgery and narcotics. So now, you don’t even know if it’s cause or effect; it’s very hard to make a diagnosis. For the plumbing part of it, for pain, we have nothing—nothing. You just have to take somebody’s word for it. So, it’s very easy—it’s very easy to lie.

If you read the first notes, she was just long-term constipated, like a million other kids. It’s chronic constipation, probably mostly from all the medications. That’s all. And then it escalates, and it escalates, and it escalates. This medical system is so divided with so many specialists now that you will have 30 people involved, right? And we’re not having medical meetings all in one room. I don’t know half the doctors that have taken care of her; it’s just the size of the system. So, of course, we’re not in communication. It’s ‘he says, she says’—so easy. If she says, ‘Oh, the surgeon said this,’ unfortunately, I’m probably not going to take the time to call the surgeon and say, ‘Did you really say that?’ Because we just can’t, or we don’t, unless we suspect something. I think we didn’t detect it in time.

Heroic doses of narcotics—heroic doses. Though, they sneak up on you, right? So, although none of us would survive, I don’t think, the doses that she was receiving… even if we split them between the three of us. But that was a scenario where I was really taken back, and I’m saying, ‘Well, all right, well, this girl stood up on the gurney and gave me a hug, if I remember correctly, in the ER at the time of admission.’ And I’m saying, ‘Okay, well, where does the DNR come from? And who decided she doesn’t have a quality of life?’ All of this piece… and I had frank conversations with Mom. It went kind of shockingly well.

I think palliative care was there with us when I had to tell her that I’m not comfortable with this—I cannot sign this DNR. And I told her, ‘I can’t trust you to tell me that she has no quality of life.’ And I think I probably said, ‘It doesn’t matter who you are, I’m not going to trust you to be the only voice to tell me that she doesn’t deserve everything that we would offer for another child here.’ And we also talked about what you do in this scenario. There were some meetings, and I called an ethics consult, and had meetings with palliative care, and then eventually with a colleague who took over her care because I just wasn’t comfortable with that scenario.

In those conversations, we talked about what you do with this, right? Where you don’t know if intestinal failure has dysmotility or not, and there is no test I could do to prove that other than to challenge this. We had conversations—and I don’t even remember who was involved in which ones—about, ‘Well, okay, you hospitalize her.’ Well, if you hospitalize her and a parent, Kelly or otherwise, is in that room at all, that’s not going to be a very good test, right? So, do you send her home or do you find another placement? Wow, that’s an enormous step.

Despite the many, many hours that day, there really was no substantial discussion about signs or symptoms there. It was really all about, ‘Okay, we have a DNR. This is a horrible situation in my mind, and I don’t think we should have a DNR, and I can’t find anyone who could tell me why we should have a DNR.’ I sought out people who knew, and that was the focus of the last admission. In the end, I remained very, very uncomfortable with the situation and the care. I mean, I’ve never been in a situation where I refused somebody’s care. I’ve never heard of that before.”

Another doctor explained:

“You say, ‘Mom has the kid’s best interest at heart, and we’ve done what we can medically speaking, and we will respect the wishes to transfer to hospice and withdraw care,’ or you call DHS and pursue a child abuse diagnosis. And that, as I’m sure you guys know, is a significant uphill battle without wonderful documentation, and no one felt like that was… you know, they’re never cut and dried, but no one felt it fit the right picture for that. People that knew her thought Mom was a little quirky; she might have had a bipolar personality type disorder, but that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t have her child’s best interest at heart. So, we couldn’t base our decision on a perceived mental health diagnosis she may or may not have.

I guess, in hindsight, we maybe made the wrong choice, but at the time, everybody I talked to—including our ethics team, including our GI service—we all felt that we didn’t really have the… I mean, this was the right decision. It was our decision to allow her to pursue this and that her interests at heart were in alignment with proper medical care. I think we all kind of begrudgingly agreed that we had to respect that, and we let it happen. I even went and saw hospice, and Kelly was appropriate; she was distraught but at peace with her decision. I don’t know that we would have done anything different put in that situation. Obviously, hindsight is 20/20.

Again, as much as I can be off the record, I feel absolutely terrible about this. It’s the ‘what if’—what could we have done differently? How could we have seen this coming? What could we have done? Could we have prevented this? Could we have gotten someone involved earlier, maybe? And you know, I guess basically we call Child Protective Services and they take it from there. For what it’s worth, I have a social worker on my team; we definitely have times when we call them. It is not to fault the system, but it’s very hit-or-miss. I’ve had families where the kids weren’t taken away because they were playing in the park across the street; I’ve had kids of meth addicts where the report was filed three times and nothing happened. So, it’s not a perfect system—no system is—but it’s a really tough thing to do because what I’m basically saying, if I’m going to say we’re going to go down Mom’s route, I’m saying, ‘You’re not parenting your child correctly. Not only that, but you are putting them in harm’s way. We’re taking your child away and investigating you.’

Because if we do open a CPS case, the first thing they’re going to do is that investigation, and we’ve got to have documentation in place. If I just start it now, say on day one of where you want to do this, I better have great records going back a long time. I better have a lot of places where I said, ‘This doesn’t feel right, there’s a split between medical and what Mom’s saying.’ I don’t know that any of us had that enough to really push for it. And again, it’s one of those diagnoses that you better be sure—you better be sure you’re doing that. You can’t just be like, ‘Huh, maybe.’ If we’re going to pull that trigger—sorry to use a term, you know what I mean, though, right? Once the trigger is pulled, it’s pulled. You do that, and we’re saying you’re an unfit mother, you’re doing something wrong.

Again, hindsight is 20/20. Clearly, maybe we should have said something or looked into it further. Knowing what I know now, obviously, it’s a different story. Knowing what I knew then, we would have done the same thing 100% of the time. It is so tough to think that a parent doesn’t have their child’s best interest in mind. It’s so difficult to assume that they’re lying to me, that they’re fabricating. And again, this is probably the presumptuous optimism of a physician; I assume I’m on the ‘people are good’ side of things. That being said, I see the underbelly all the time. It’s there, and I know I see it, but we as a medical community, when people come to us for help, we assume they really need help.

I hope that I documented everything perfectly because I know it’s gone over with a fine-tooth comb. Doing it all over again, I don’t know that I would have done anything differently. Is this going to change my practice in the future? Am I going to start going on social media? I don’t know that I want to do that. Just to be crystal clear, we’re not approaching this investigation at all from the perspective that there was any nefarious intent on the part of anybody in Children’s Hospital. I know, I understand that. I just feel awful about it.”

8. The Ethical Battle over Olivia’s Life

After Olivia was released from this hospital stay, Kelly moved Olivia to home hospice care, and Olivia received higher doses of narcotics while she was being cared for at home. Three months later, Olivia returned to Children’s Hospital for an infection related to the tubes in her body. It was during this stay that more providers began raising the alarm about potential child abuse.

Doctors pointed to the possibility that Olivia’s reported pain was opioid-induced hyperalgesia—a condition where a patient’s nerves become more sensitive to pain after taking opioids. Dr. Seth Eisenndorfer noted that Olivia would scream in pain about 20 minutes after receiving Hydromorphone. During this time, Kelly had requested a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order. She justified her request by saying, “If Olivia dies while we’re rotating opioids, it’s God’s time to call her home, and I am not going to stop that. I will not watch my child die while you guys are pounding on her chest or sticking a tube down her throat.”

Dr. Thomas Walker, a pediatric gastroenterologist, put his concerns into medical records, writing that the care the hospital was providing might be making Olivia’s condition worse. He objected to the DNR and refused to sign it. He requested the hospital’s Ethics Committee weigh in on the situation, sparking the first of three meetings. Some of Olivia’s medical providers expressed significant concerns about Kelly’s ability to make decisions in Olivia’s best interest, but the committee ultimately sided with Kelly. Olivia’s father was also contacted by phone, and records show he supported the DNR as well. The committee transferred Olivia’s care from Dr. Walker to another physician who was willing to sign the DNR order.

Kelly also wanted to stop Olivia’s TPN (the tube sending all of her nutrition through her veins). She stated that Olivia’s body was rejecting the TPN, which isn’t biologically possible; her medical records did not show any concerns with the TPN. Removing it would kill Olivia. There was another ethics meeting to discuss Kelly’s request to remove the TPN. Kelly was so upset by the hearing and the concerns of medical professionals in the meeting that she walked out, stating she felt it was “selfish” to prolong Olivia’s life. She stated specifically, “I know there is a better life for Olivia in heaven. I’m more afraid of her suffering than I am of her dying. I hate to see her suffer every day.”

The Ethics Committee sided with Kelly again and allowed the removal of the TPN, which would kill Olivia, and had her transferred to hospice to die. Medical providers who objected could follow the hospital’s conscientious objector policy and file a report with the hospital’s internal social worker or Child Protection Team to be referred to outside Social Services. None of them did. When Dr. Jillian Cotter signed the papers discharging Olivia to hospice, she noted that she personally disagreed with Kelly’s decision but thought that the hospital did its due diligence to ensure Kelly had the capacity to decide and wasn’t breaking any laws. Dr. Jillian Cotter signed Olivia’s death warrant.

As I mentioned before, Olivia was told she was going to a place with “no more ouchies.” She was excited and watched The Lion King on the bus ride from Children’s Hospital to hospice. She sang “Hakuna Matata” on the way—”It means no worries for the rest of your days.” She didn’t know she was going to die; she was happy.

9. The Legal Battle and Demanding Accountability

Investigators eventually decided to exhume Olivia’s body for further examination. Her death had originally been listed as complications due to intestinal failure. The autopsy law enforcement requested after the exhumation ruled her cause of death as “undetermined.”

After about a year-long investigation, on Friday, October 18, 2019, Kelly was arrested and charged with 13 criminal offenses:

• Two counts of murder in the first degree

• One count of child abuse

• Three counts of theft

• Three counts of charitable fraud

• Two counts of attempting to influence a public servant

• Two counts of second-degree forgery

A few weeks before her trial was set to begin, she accepted a plea deal to an amended charge of child abuse negligently causing death. She also pleaded guilty to theft of $100,000 to $1,000,000 and to charitable fraud. She was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Olivia’s grandfather, Lonnie Groth, has taken significant steps to seek justice and accountability for her murder. He believes that mandatory reporting laws, which require healthcare providers to report abuse, were not followed by the hospital that treated Olivia. He is calling for a change in policies regarding the reporting of suspected child abuse. He filed a $25 million lawsuit against the hospital that was eventually settled for an undisclosed amount.

“So, first one is Cinderella… cute as a button. She’s going to make no cuter—so much cuter.” Olivia Gant exuded joy, even as the system designed to protect her failed. It rips your heart out, you know? She could still be with us; she did not have to die. It plays over and over in my mind: she didn’t know she was going there to die. Lonnie Groth was Olivia’s step-grandfather, a frequent one-man audience to Olivia’s one-kid shows. “See, I’m Cinderella, you’re so different… Oh no, the elephant failed! The elephant failed, help get the elephant!” He can watch these videos over and over—but not this one, though, knowing what he knows now. They put a child in hospice to starve to death. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s how she died: she starved to death.”

TPN is Total Parenteral Nutrition—essentially IV nutrition. University of Chicago pediatric medical ethicist Dr. K. Sarah Hoehn says what Mom wanted was clear: “Stopping TPN in someone who is TPN-dependent is going to lead to certain death within weeks. This is not someone who’s in tremendous distress; this is not someone who’s in pain. And yet, that day, one doctor at Children’s concluded he was comfortable discharging Olivia to hospice where TPN would be discontinued.”

As Olivia sang on her way to hospice, a hospice nurse noted: “She is unaware that stopping nutrition will assuredly cause her demise.” Dr. Hoehn says that pausing could have exposed Children’s Hospital to criticism for all of the surgeries and all of the times its staff had treated Olivia. “I think there’s a potential for a conflict of interest when you have someone who’s literally been the poster child for that hospital for a long period of time, and now you’re saying, ‘Gosh, we’re not sure, we missed something.'”

Two days before Olivia died, Lonnie Groth, unaware of the internal hospital debate, sat with his dying granddaughter. “I grabbed her little hand, and she opened her eyes. Being on all those heavy narcotics, she recognized me and said, ‘Papa, I am hungry.’ All the signs were there for them to protect her, to report abuse, and save her life. Instead, they put her on a deathbed.”

10. Concluding Thoughts

Researching Olivia’s case had me crawling out of my skin. Reporting the details of it is one thing, but reading through the unnecessary medical procedures she was forced to endure while her mother looked on brought a fury inside of me—reading how Olivia would scream and thrash around knowing a surgery was imminent, then how her mother would fight to have Olivia transferred to hospice and watch her starve for 19 days. How twisted do you have to be as a mother to watch your child suffer for years because of a facade you have created, collecting money off of your child’s suffering? My God, I’m so heartbroken and infuriated.

There have been headlines saying Kelly suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, which, by the way, she herself denies. I purposely did not mention that until now because I firmly believe the only labels fitting for this woman are evil, soulless, and devoid of human emotion. And then to think, after Olivia was gone, Kelly tried to do it again with her surviving sister. Thank goodness Dr. Santucci did the right thing, followed up on Kelly’s claims that her daughter had cancer, and actually did something about it. She literally saved that child’s life.

Then there’s the plea deal: 16 years. Are you kidding me? We all know she won’t serve her entire sentence. In my opinion, this woman should have to endure seven years of torture, then be sent to her death, just like she did to Olivia. Everything about Olivia’s case seems so unjust. The only thing that maybe gives me a tiny bit of peace is that Olivia is no longer in pain. She never had to know how horrifically her mother betrayed her.

Rest in love, sweet Olivia. You will never be forgotten.