Broken Bond

(Producer) When the baby daughter of Jim and Tanya Reid began suffering from sleep apnea, doctors were puzzled. At each occurrence her mother calmly resusitated her--until February 7, 1984, when Morgan died, apparently of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). In 1985, when the Reids' new son began having sleep apnea complicated by seizures, a suspicious health-care worker noted inconsistencies between Tanya's narrative, the baby's condition, and the pathologies involved. Medical experts reviewed the cases and suspected Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. When Morgan's autopsy records were reopened, X-rays showed brain damage consistent with being shaken violently, perhaps to induce unconsciousness. That evidence, combined with the fact that Tanya, as a teenage babysitter, had been hailed as a heroine for resuscitating a child who suddenly stopped breathing, led to a change in the ruling on Morgan's death from SIDS to murder.