A Texas dad is smiling just a little bit brighter this Christmas, not because of any monetary gift, but something he says money can't buy: having his son back in his life. Dad, Ryan Crawford was been granted temporary managing conservatorship of his 8-year-old son after the boy’s mother was accused of forcing the perfectly healthy child to undergo numerous invasive procedures, 13 major surgeries to be exact (and over 300 unnecessary hospital visits). Now, in 2018, he's been granted full custody with only supervised visits by the mom.
The Star-Telegram reports that Christopher Bowen will soon be living with his father because a judge ruled in Crawford’s favor Wednesday after an agreement was reached by all parties.
“God answers prayers. We’ve been praying for eight years,” Nelly Crawford, Christopher’s grandmother, told the news site. “We’re so happy. This is a day we’ll never forget and celebrate. Y’all rest assured, he’s going to be well taken care of because he is loved.”
Crawford has long suspected that Christopher’s mother, Kaylene Bowen, was lying about the young boy’s health and has been fighting to gain custody of his son for years. Once he knew something wasn't right, he took the legal route and filed all the necessary reports with Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) and went before judge after judge in family court.
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But instead of being seen as a concerned father, he was only being judged as a baby-daddy who didn't know his son. At one point in 2012, when Christopher was 3, a judge even blocked Crawford from seeing his son.
Finally, Crawford is getting some vindication. Bowen is facing charges of injury to a child with serious bodily injury after being accused of medical child abuse, also known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a disorder in which a parent exaggerates or creates a child’s medical symptoms to get attention.
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Bowen lost custody of Christopher and her two other children, Christopher’s half-siblings, after medical providers raised concerns with CPS in November, the second time that such a report has been made since 2015.
Bowen, who denied the allegations, is currently free after a judge agreed to lower her bond from $150,000 to $25,000. However, she was ordered not to have any contact with a minor child.
If you remember, according to Huffington Post, In 2014, when Christopher was 5, Bowen was telling everybody including Crawford, that Christopher had a rare life-threatening condition that affected his oxygen supply and suffered a rare genetic disorder and, later, cancer. She said he’d been diagnosed at age 2.
“Christopher has trouble breathing so basically, his lungs ― and body ― doesn’t get the oxygen it needs, so he gets tired,” Bowen claimed to...
... WFAA-TV. “He can’t play as long as the normal kids.” The interview was conducted during a bike rally intended to raise $30,000 for Christopher’s care.
“We don’t know how long Christopher will live,” Bowen-Wright used to claim.
But doctors have since determined that Christopher does not have cancer or many of the other ailments Bowen-Wright has claimed. He does not need a lung transplant or hospice care, they concluded.
“I had to do this all by myself for eight years. And for people to actually show their concern and be so welcoming...it’s comforted me,” Crawford said. “It’s let me know that others are finally on board with what I have been saying and that Christopher has a tremendous amount of supporters.”
