--- title: Australian Woman Poisons Her Daughter to Get Facebook Attention description: AFP has reported that an Australian woman has been jailed after “deliberately poisoning” her 4-year-old daughter with chemotherapy drugs. canonical: https://time.com/2856331/australia-mother-chemotherapy-poisons-daughter/ author: Nash Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-11T09:20:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:20:39.316Z article:section: Health og:title: Australian Woman Poisons Her Daughter to Get Facebook Attention og:description: AFP has reported that an Australian woman has been jailed after “deliberately poisoning” her 4-year-old daughter with chemotherapy drugs. og:url: https://time.com/2856331/australia-mother-chemotherapy-poisons-daughter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Australian Woman Poisons Her Daughter to Get Facebook Attention twitter:description: AFP has reported that an Australian woman has been jailed after “deliberately poisoning” her 4-year-old daughter with chemotherapy drugs. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Australian Woman Poisons Daughter to Get Facebook Attention by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Jun 11, 2014 9:20 AM UTC by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Jun 11, 2014 9:20 AM UTC An Australian mother has been [jailed](https://sg.news.yahoo.com/australian-jailed-poisoning-daughter-attention-062513218.html) for deliberately poisoning her otherwise healthy 4-year-old daughter with chemotherapy drugs. Over a nine-month period, the 23-year-old woman used the Internet to procure the cancer treatment drug cyclophosphamide — the [lesser side effects](http://cancer.stanford.edu/information/cancerTreatment/methods/chemotherapy.html) of which include hair loss and fertility impairment — and then fed the chemicals to her child, who consequently came to suffer from near-fatal bone-marrow failure, reports AFP. Her motive, say prosecutors, was attention. As her daughter’s health deteriorated, the woman turned to Facebook to chronicle the ongoing “fight for life,” attempting to evoke sympathy by describing the stricken child’s dire need for a bone-marrow transplant. Although at one point close to death, the girl has since made a good recovery, the court heard, and has been placed in the custody of her grandparents. Her mother, who cannot be named to protect the victim’s identity, was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to grievous bodily harm. The crime carries a maximum penalty of 25 years’ imprisonment in Australia. According to her legal team, the woman suffered from [factitious disorder by proxy](http://psychiatry.stanford.edu/Psychosomatic/Maldonado'02-Factitious%20DO%20by%20Proxy%20-JACFP.pdf), defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as “the deliberate production or feigning of physical or psychological signs or symptoms in another person who is under the individual’s care.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2856331/australia-mother-chemotherapy-poisons-daughter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2856331/australia-mother-chemotherapy-poisons-daughter/"},"headline":"Australian Woman Poisons Daughter to Get Facebook Attention","datePublished":"2014-06-11T09:20:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:20:39.316Z","description":"After being close to death last year, the girl has made a full recovery","url":"https://time.com/2856331/australia-mother-chemotherapy-poisons-daughter/","keywords":["Mental Health","Psychology","Australia","Child abuse","chemotherapy"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nash Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/mental-health/","name":"Mental Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2856331/australia-mother-chemotherapy-poisons-daughter/","name":"Australian Woman Poisons Daughter to Get Facebook Attention"}}]}] ```