What Did the Doctors Know in the Case of Gypsy Rose Blanchard?
Written by: Fancy Macelli
I know I often harp on the lies and mistruths out there from Gypsy and her family but today I’d like to discuss the doctors. For three years while working with the family, before all hell broke loose when we began questioning their stories, we were given access to Gypsy’s medical files (and we still have them all).
The files fill up over 5 of the largest three ring binders I could find and that is just all of the ones we have printed. While many believe that her medical files were lost in Katrina that is a blatant lie. In fact, the doctor’s did request and recieved the majority of her records from LA. Including a letter telling them that Gypsy did NOT have Muscular Dystrophy.
These records were not sent to doctors who only saw Gypsy once or twice. These medical records were sent to her primary care physicians. Furthermore, her main doctor, Dr. Beckerman was her main doctor in LA as well as MO. So, where exactly were his old records? Interesting right? He would have known they weren’t lost and he knew her entire medical history.
Not a single doctor on Gypsy’s case has been investigated. Not ONE!!!! I find that super strange. For years Colleen, Sara, Christina and I have all wondered how this happened. How could the doctors not know? I’m of the opinion they did and not only knew but perpetuated the fraud. When we first started collecting these records we looked at them in shock. It was utterly unbelievable but over time they’ve really begun to tell a whole different story.
Everyone accuses Dee Dee of doctor shopping but the records don’t prove that at all. The same doctors are in these files over and over and over. She also wasn’t shopping pharmacies. She wasn’t using stolen prescription pads like Kristy Blanchard has claimed. There is absolutely no evidence to support this claim. There was no prescription pad in any evidence log only that Kristy claims she found one but never produced a single picture to prove it.
Dee Dee was meticulous in her own record keeping. She had a book of all her picked up medications for her and Gypsy. I can account through the records for every single prescription she had. The medicine cabinet at first glance is beyond shocking but once you really start evaluating it things aren’t always as they appear. That medicine cabinet looks like she was fleecing every pharmacy in a 100 mile radius. That’s what we thought at first too.
But instead, that closet to me proves she was never taking any of the medications. That coupled with the fact that she herself admits she has no long term effects of these medications is another indicator. She has had no medical issues since her arrest. These are medicines that would have caused long term effects. She wasn’t taking them. She was hoarding them to look like she was taking them but in reality looking at that closet says otherwise.
The closet is in direct opposition to the rest of the house. The rest of the house was in utter chaos. In fact, the first responding officer, Officer Hughes who we exclusively interviewed, told us that one of the back bedrooms was so full of junk they couldn’t even push the door open.
Take a zoom in on this picture. If you look at the boxes and bottles there truly isn’t that many that are prescription. The ones that are look like cough medicine which we do have many records for those and they appear full. The boxes are inhalers. Again look at those boxes piled up but not open.
And then everything else is over the counter medications or supplies that are haphazardly thrown about just like the rest of the house. But if you’re not closely looking at the contents it seems horrific but on further glance I think it begins to unravel the lies. For the longest time we didn’t look either folks. But after seeing ALL the medical records and the pharmacy records that closet does not hold the same shock value.
The house was a hoarders delight and nothing was organized but that closet surely was. Why? Because it had to be to keep the lies straight.
Dr. Beckerman was Gypsy’s main doctor along with Dr. Steele. Both doctors worked for Children’s Mercy Hospital of Missouri. Dr. Beckerman was Gypsy’s doctor her entire life. In fact, after leaving LA to go to MO he still held his medical license in LA and practiced there so he saw Gypsy this whole time. He didn’t randomly reunite with them after Katrina. His records are at best unprofessional and at worst litterd with blatant lies.
One visit he states shes 13 on the next visit two days later in his own words she’s now 15 then back to 13 on the next visit. This goes well beyond just bad record keeping or Dee Dee changing birthdays. These are doctors notes and things change from him depending on what doctor HE is communicating with. He refers to them in his files as his favorite mother daughter patient. Gypsy told me that they used to go to his home for dinner. Does that sound normal to you? Now I take every story she tells with a grain of salt but that on I do believe. He contradicts himself sentence to sentence and when Dee Dee can’t explain something he is quick to jump in and assist.
One such instance was with the breathing machine. There are hours and hours of it just running with no ups and no downs. As if the machine is turned on and left. He tells Dee Dee to bring it in but she never does however, he still makes recommendations on treatments without the device. He says it’s faulty and orders another. Then in the files he indicates the reason he doesn’t have the new results is because they were on a Make a Wish trip and left it behind. This explains why the new machine had no results because it was lost. Another is ordered but yet he still proceeds with his procedures despite the fact he clearly has nothing to go on. We will be sharing several of these documents in our upcoming docuseries slated for early 2024. To hear Colleen, a nurse practioner and nursing school instructor, read from them in great detail please find our original 13 episode podcast, The Good Wives’ Guide to True Crime, covering the case on all of your favorite podcast platforms.
He also makes statements to cover results when they are showing that what he is prescribing or treating is in direct opposition. For instance, he blames the fact that she gets so excited at seeing him that her breathing doesn’t match what he knows to be true. We posted a video on all our socials reading from this document. In it he contradicts himself no less than 10 times. It’s laughable and if it wasn’t so blatantly wrong it’d be an amazing comedy skit for Saturday Night Live but this is real life and this doctor is still the head of this department at that same hospital. Kids seeing him every day. How do we know what those kids are being forced to endure if this is the type of doctor they are seeing?
These doctors run the tests but do the exact opposite. In fact, several times it’s notated they think Gypsy is faking or that the procedure they are requesting is unneccessary. Yet just days later the very next document is performing the procdure they just stated they didn’t think was needed. Either these are the worst doctors in the history of ever or they knew. It’s very black and white. Either way NONE of them should be practicing.
Of note, most of Gypsy’s surgries & treatments were considered routine. If you look at Gypsy in her early years you can see problems with her eyes. This was long before anything was being done to them surgically. She had many eye surgeries, these easily could have been neccessary at some point. She had tubes placed in her ears which is another common procedure for children. A feeding tube (the 2nd most invasive procedure of all) she never had monitored, and numerous dental surgeries that could have been needed for a varity of reasons. She didn’t take one bite of cake and her mom removed them like certain shows have portrayed. They were rotting out of her head and that can be explained as just bad teeth or bad oral hygiene.
The biggest and most dangerous surgery would have been the removal of the salivary glands. But, I’m not convinced that was actually done. A friend of mine, Jenn Lu from The Ward Case Studies , pointed this out to me. Gypsy is capable of licking her lips and producing saliva and if all the salivary glands were removed then she would not be able to do this. Upon reading the medical files again what we can see is the glands were reduced in size but not fully removed. With the questions we have on the doctors involvement in the fraud though we can’t even be certain the surgery was even performed. I know it’s a wild stretch but it’s not unheard of and in my opinion in this case it’s just about the only thing that makes sense.
Gypsy had way too many conflicting issues in her files being reguraly shared with other doctors for this to be swept under the rug. These doctors need to be investigated and their licenses should be revoked.
But nobody is questioning any of these doctors. My question is why? Why weren’t they investigated? Why didn’t they lose their licenses? And it’s not one or two doctors. It’s a whole network of them. Do I think every doctor knew what was going on? No. But more than one would expect.
My work on this case has made me dive into Springfield in more detail to understand how this could all happen. I don’t think it’s by chance at all. I have begun to uncover a very corrupt town and I believe that Gypsy is just the tip of the iceberg and the medical files are the key to so much. Criminals know criminals. It doesn’t matter if you are the lowly dealer on the street or a doctor commiting medical fraud. If you are a criminal you don’t have to go far to find others willing to get in bed with you. So, it’s not beyond the possibility this is a ring of bad doctors. At very least they need to be investigated.
Once you see the medical files everything you’ve accepted as truth in this case gets real muddy. And once you’ve seen them you can’t ever unsee them and things begin to really not add up. Each piece of evidence leads you down a whole different rabbit hole. The questions never cease and the answers never make sense.
Why is the DA not concerned that such outrageous amounts of fraud are happening in his town? Why is the hospital not questioning? And my biggest question is if you stop and really think about it why are Gypsy, Rod, and Kristy not screaming from the rooftops demanding justice? Why did state insurance not get involved once the story broke? It just all seems so odd.
Well, I have my theories that we’ll share in our docuseries, but I’d love to hear yours, drop us your thoughts in the comments.
Fancy Macelli, is the leading expert on the Gypsy Rose Blanchard case. She appeared and largely contributed to the information shared in A&E’s Killer Cases covering this case. Before her split off from the family she also appeared on The Reelz channel’s Copycat Killers however her opinions have greatly changed since that interview based on new evidence. Fancy is currently finishing up a degree in Forensic Psychology which she was inspired to do from her work investigating Gypsy’s case. She has been regularly featured in articles on this case with the Springfield News Leader, In Touch Magazine, People Magazine and multiple other publications. She has been invited to speak on several occasions on this case and her knowledge on Munchausen By Proxy Syndrome or Factitous Disease Imposed Upon Another.
Currently she owns The Good Wives’ Network, a streaming platform on Roku, Android TV, and Amazon TV that will premiere later this year, along with partners Colleen & Sara with guidance from their late beloved friend and forver partner, Christina. The GWN provides content for women by a network of women. From cooking to true crime and everything in between.
These ladies have also launched their own non-profit Stop the Cycle of Abuse Program to help prevent Intimate Partner Violence inspired by their work on this case and several others in the Springfield Area.