Munchausen syndrome? Terri Cerda lied about daughters’ illness on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

It may be a bit cynical to say, but this was inevitable. One of the desperate cases getting new homes on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was not being truthful about their situation.

In 2009 Chuck and Terri Cerda appeared on the feel-good reality show, claiming that Terri and their two daughters Molly (10) and Maggie (8) had immunodeficiency diseases that were aggravated by living in their moldy Las Vegas house. The show gave the Cerdas a brand new mansion (I’ve never understood the mansion part of this deal, because if the families were already struggling, how could they be able to pay for the taxes and upkeep?) complete with tons of luxurious amenities like a solar-heated swimming pool, and elevator, and an air-filtration system.

By the end of 2009, the Cerdas had sold their dream home because they couldn’t afford maintenance (a pretty valid claim, actually) and moved to Oregon, but one of the reasons why they couldn’t afford it was because they were spending loads of money on medical bills for the children. There’s only one problem: none of the pediatricians they saw could find anything wrong with the girls. In fact, evidence suggests that Terri suffered from a mental illness known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy. People who have this psychiatric disorder feign diseases for another, usually a child, in order to receive attention.

Terri would tell doctors that her girls were suffering from various symptoms, but when test after test was run, they could find nothing wrong. When on set of doctors refused to treat an illness they couldn’t find, they would move on to more doctors. Eventually, physicians worried that this behavior was a form of child abuse, and this February, the state took temporary custody of Molly and Maggie, after Dr. Thomas Valvano reported them. The girls were placed in the home of their maternal grandfather Jerry McMahan, who did not find the children to be ill.

Six of the doctors who saw the girls even testified in Clackamas County Circuit Court. It came out that Terri Cerda kept the children from making friends, and taught them to think catching a common cold would be deadly. Terri Cerda did not have any doctors testify for her, nor did she submit any medical records to the court.

The children were allowed to go home with both of their parents because their father Chuck was deemed by Judge Norby to be a “capable parent,” even though his wife’s behavior was “obsessive and unjustifiable.”

Terri immediately took the children back to Las Vegas, where she resumed treatment for the children with former doctors in Las Vegas and L.A. Chuck, a Homeland Security officer, is waiting to transfer back to Las Vegas to rejoin his family. The Oregon Department of Human services have notified the Nevada child welfare program about the case, but there is no word yet if Nevada plans to investigate the Cerdas.