Her Mother Created ALL Her Suffering

Her Mother Created ALL Her Suffering

Princess Olivia, we need you to respond to a dumpster fire.

She is a ball of fire today. Her wish came true to become a firefighter. She’s in, um, intestinal failure and we don’t know how much longer she has.

The story I have for you today is about a little girl whose mother insisted that she was terminally ill. But come to find out, it was all just a big scam—a scam that would end up taking this girl’s life. This is the story of Olivia Gant.

Olivia K. Gant was born in Pasadena, Texas on June 21st, 2010 to her mother, Kelly Turner Gant, and her father, Jeff Gant. Little Olivia loved playing with her two sisters and watching movies. She had an amazing imagination, was very talkative, and loved making others laugh. Olivia enjoyed going to the zoo, eating vanilla ice cream, and talking about dinosaurs and sharks. She was also crazy about princesses and would often dress up as one. Olivia additionally had a very special bond with her grandfather, Lonnie Gatro, whom she called Papa.

Olivia’s parents separated shortly after she was born, and not long after that, Kelly moved herself and her daughters to Littleton, Colorado. Here, Olivia attended Coline Hills Elementary School, which she loved going to as she had many friends.

The Escalation of False Medical Claims
In August of 2011, Kelly began blogging about Olivia and her middle daughter’s alleged medical needs. In these blog entries, she lists Olivia’s medical ailments. Among them were a misshapen head, developmental delays, seizures, a tumor, too much fluid on her brain, and celiac disease, none of which would later prove to be true. Kelly additionally claimed that Olivia’s older sister, who was two at the time, was sick and had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma as well as an autoimmune disorder. But in reality, the little girl had never been diagnosed with anything more serious than an ear infection.

In 2012, Olivia’s life full of medical visits began when she was seen at Children’s Hospital Colorado for constipation. Even though a medical procedure to remove hardened fecal matter from the little girl’s intestines was a success, Olivia was soon back at the hospital for treatment again with her alleged problems with digesting food.

Over the next five years, she and her mother would end up making over a thousand visits to the hospital. Kelly reported to dozens of doctors from that time on that her daughter had a history of seizures, was autistic, had pain when eating, and some sort of intestinal failure. The mother additionally claimed that Olivia had undergone allergy testing and it was found that she was allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, chocolate, milk protein, and cats.

Interventions and Escalating Treatments
Then in July of 2014, a neurologist determined that Olivia was no longer having seizures. Therefore, she should stop taking the medication that was prescribed for it. But this was advice that Kelly would refuse to listen to, and somehow she continued to keep getting it prescribed.

Later that year in November, Olivia, who was said to be having digestive issues, underwent an ileostomy, which is a medical procedure that creates a hole in the abdomen so that waste can drain directly into a bag. Her mother would report that this improved Olivia’s constipation, but stated that she would now not eat. So, a feeding tube was then placed through Olivia’s nose.

Just a few months later, a more permanent feeding tube would be placed through Olivia’s abdomen. This replaced her nose tube and was called a TPN tube. However, it seemed that this method didn’t work either, because in June of 2015, she underwent another surgery—this time to place a tube to feed her in her veins.

The thing is, an occupational therapist said that Olivia had graduated to age-appropriate foods, and she had no problem swallowing or tolerating regular food by mouth. Yet, for years, doctors continued to treat Olivia based heavily on the statements that her mother was making.

The Bucket List and Community Sympathy
Then, in July of 2015, Kelly would post on her blog for the first time that Olivia had a terminal illness. Her medical records showed no such thing, but again, Kelly got her way, and somehow she was able to get her daughter prescribed an escalating dose of painkillers.

Soon, Kelly began using sympathy to scam various charity organizations and individuals as well. She posted a photo of Olivia with her bucket list, which was a list of things that her daughter wanted to do before she died. This included taking care of a hurt animal, being a fireman, riding a hot air balloon, and catching a bad guy with police.

With the aid of the Make-A-Wish Foundation and other local groups, Olivia was able to make quite a few of her dreams come true. She was given an $11,000 Batman-themed princess party as well as events where the little girl got to pretend to be a firefighter and police officer.

She’s in, um, intestinal failure and we don’t know how much longer she has. And so we made a bucket list and one of her things was to become a firefighter.

See how far we can get it to go.

Yeah.

When we found out that she wanted to do this, we were very thrilled to be able to help out. I mean, I don’t even have words to describe how I feel. It’s just a bunch of ball of emotion. We moved here from Texas a few years ago to, um, seek out treatment. Her intestines just shut down one at a time. We knew that Olivia lived in Littleton’s fire district. Since Littleton and South Metro train together and respond to emergencies together, it only made sense that we could come together on this and both show her a great time.

Way to go.

So, here’s my bucket list.

She wanted to do this. I didn’t know that it would come true.

Be a fireman.

You got to do that. So, they have to check it off.

Thanks for being a great boss.

Awesome. We—I was resting for a while so I could feel good.

The outpouring of support that our little community has given, you just can never repay that.

Good job.

Yeah, there we go.

We just take it one day at a time and we’re thankful for what we have.

It’s believed that over the course of Olivia’s life, Kelly scammed organizations and individuals for over $500,000. However, knowing what this little girl really went through, I’m glad that she was able to experience all these things before she did die.

Final Months and Tragic Passing
In March of 2017, Olivia underwent her final surgery, which was a procedure implanting a tube in her bladder, which drained through her abdomen. This was after Kelly admitted her daughter to the hospital, saying that her bladder was not functioning properly. At this point, seven-year-old Olivia had never learned to use the bathroom on her own and still wore a diaper.

Following the surgery, the little girl was discharged from the hospital, but she would be back on March 24th, 2017. This time, Kelly reported that Olivia was rejecting her TPN treatments, something that doctors would later say was not possible. But the mother insisted that her daughter could not eat on her own because they had previously tried and it didn’t work. She claimed that Olivia just could not tolerate a normal diet.

The thing is, the little girl was not absorbing enough nutrients to survive. She was only getting about 30% of what she needed to sustain life. Doctors also became concerned about the amount of stool that Olivia was producing. During this visit, Kelly would be caught red-handed taking Olivia’s ileostomy bag and dumping it when nurses were out of the room. This was likely to hide the amount of stool that was inside of it, because this would show how well Olivia’s intestines were really functioning.

Once the mother was found doing this, an around-the-clock sitter was placed into the room with her and Olivia. And during this time, it was noticed that the amount of stool that the little girl passed increased significantly.

By March 29th, Kelly began telling doctors that her daughter’s quality of life was unacceptable. Olivia was constantly undergoing medical procedures and surgeries; she was also constantly in pain. Therefore, Kelly requested that a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) be placed for her daughter. She also requested that Olivia be taken off her TPN tube, meaning that the little girl would not receive any nutrition. Kelly then insisted that she be transferred to hospice care where she could be made as comfortable as possible as she slowly died.

But Olivia’s primary care doctor, Dr. Thomas Walker, refused to sign these papers because he did not believe that the little girl was actually terminally ill. He said that she was always active, happy, and social whenever he saw her, and he did not believe that a DNR was necessary. Dr. Walker reported his concerns to the higher-ups at the Denver Children’s Hospital. However, the ethics team voted against him and instead let Kelly get her way. A separate doctor named Dr. Jason Soden then signed the DNR and hospice paperwork.

So, on August 1st, 2017, Olivia was taken off all her treatment, sent home, and placed into hospice care. The little girl was reportedly in good spirits at first, singing the song Hakuna Matata from The Lion King with her mother. But that drastically changed as Olivia was only being given juice, popsicles, and medicine, and so she slowly began to starve.

On August 20th, 2017, seven-year-old Olivia passed away. Her death was ruled to have been caused by intestinal failure as a complication of her multiple medical conditions.

Investigation and Revelations
No one would become suspicious of the circumstances surrounding Olivia’s death until over a year later in October of 2018. This came after Kelly brought Olivia’s sister to the hospital with supposed bone pain. The mother told a doctor that the little girl had been treated for lymphoma in the past and she was afraid that the cancer had returned. But the doctor would end up finding out that this was untrue—Olivia’s sister never had cancer. Therefore, he filed a report of potential child abuse with the state, and it was at that point that an investigation into Olivia’s death began. At the same time, Olivia’s sisters were removed from Kelly’s care and placed with their grandparents.

During the course of their investigation, Olivia’s body would be exhumed and a medical examiner would find that there was no evidence of her supposed ailments. Her official cause of death was then changed to undetermined.

Investigators soon began interviewing those who knew Olivia, as well as doctors who had partaken in her care. When they spoke with the girl’s father, Jeff, he said that he had had his three daughters on his health insurance ever since they were born. However, after they moved to Colorado with their mother, Kelly asked him to take them off of his insurance, stating that the Colorado Children’s Hospital offered them a better plan for cheaper. This wasn’t true, however, and it’s believed that the reason why Kelly did this was because she did not want Jeff seeing all the unnecessary medical treatments that Olivia was undergoing.

Law enforcement also conducted multiple interviews with hospital staff:

I started getting very, very worried because I didn’t believe her because there were discrepancies that just didn’t quite make sense. In medicine, tests are not perfect. We have stuff like this all the time that you’re like, “Wow, really? Maybe we should repeat that test because it doesn’t make sense, right?” But it was just one after another after another, right? When you ask for the small bowel, the small bowel transit looks amazing. And you know this, there’s a stool coming out of every orifice. Nobody sees that? Comes into the hospital several times and nobody notes that or writes that down, right? Then of course the death note, and then I see that there’s more and more and she—oh no, no, we were using it very smartly…

Monday morning quarterback, right? At the time in fact, just in the hospital, just had surgery, right?

Yeah.

So, there’s always a feasible or possible explanation. Pain. We have no test for pain, right? So, the mother—she’s in terrible pain. And then I even said she looks pretty good.

Oh, a good day.

30 doctors might have taken care of this kid or more. Yes. And somehow, right, she navigated these waters.

Well, I have to say I think that this is the perfect diagnosis to lie.

Why do you say that?

Because our tests for motility are far from perfect, right? And motility testing is already compromised by a child that has a lot of surgery and narcotics, right? So now you don’t even know if it’s cause or effect, right? It’s very hard to make a diagnosis… the plumbing part of it. For pain, we have nothing, right? Nothing. You just have to take somebody’s word for it. So, it’s very easy. It’s very easy to lie.

And if you read Rob’s first notes for a long, constipated… like a million other kids, it’s chronic constipation, mostly from probably withholding. That’s all. And then it escalates and it escalates and it escalates… a medical system that is so divided with so many specialists now that you will have 30 people involved, right? And we’re not having medical meetings all in one room. I don’t know half the doctors that have taken care… right? It’s just the size. So of course we’re not in communication. The he-says-she-says is so crazy. If she says, “Oh, the surgeon said this,” unfortunately, I’m probably not going to take the time to call a surgeon and say, “Did you really say that?” because we just can’t or we don’t. I mean, unless we suspect… I think we didn’t detect it in time, apparently.

On heroic doses of narcotics. Heroic doses. Though you sneak up on that, right? Although that none of us would survive, I don’t think the doses that she was receiving… even if we split them, okay, between the three of us. But that was a scenario where I was really taken aback and I’m saying, “Well, all right, well, this girl stood up on the gurney and gave me a hug, if I remember correctly, in the ER at the time of the admission,” and and I’m saying, “Okay, well, where does the DNR come from and who does not have a quality of life and all of this piece?” And I had frank conversations with mom that went kind of shockingly well. I think palliative care was there with us when I had to tell her that I’m not comfortable with this. I cannot sign this DNR. And I told her, “I can’t trust you to tell me that she has no quality of life.” And I think I probably said, “It doesn’t matter who you are, you know, I’m not going to trust you to be the only voice for [him/her] and tell me that [she] doesn’t deserve everything that we would offer for another child here.”

Investigators also interviewed two pediatric gastrointestinal doctors. They both said that Olivia was not a terminal patient. All of her symptoms and medical history had come directly from her mother, Kelly, and most of the time, the little girl did not even exhibit the symptoms that Kelly said she did.

Back in 2015, Olivia had been sent to Boston Children’s Hospital for a second opinion with another doctor after she had multiple feeding tubes and an ileostomy bag installed. The doctor that treated her at this hospital recommended that Olivia be taken off narcotics and stated that he believed she could live a long, normal life. That report was sent to Olivia’s normal hospital in Colorado, yet her treatments there continued.

Now, Olivia’s primary care doctor—the one who had refused to sign the DNR and hospice paperwork—had also never called child services to report suspected child abuse. Nor did any other doctor who had treated Olivia and suspected that her medical ailments were all made up. But the thing is, Olivia had been more than just a patient at Children’s Hospital of Colorado; she was also a little star who had advertised for them and helped them raise lots of money.

Hi, my name is Stacy.

And I’m Olivia.

And we’re making a cake, right?

Yes. Buy my cake to help kids.

In fact, they had billed over $3 million to treat a healthy child.

Justice and Aftermath
It wasn’t long until Kelly would be arrested and charged with multiple felonies, including child abuse and first-degree murder. She was also accused of defrauding Medicaid, over 160 individual donors who had given to her on online fundraisers, and multiple other charity organizations.

Come to find out, it wasn’t the first time that Kelly had been in trouble with the law, either. She had been arrested back in 1998 for aggravated assault of a child and she plea-bargained the case down to felony injury of a child and served several years in prison. Kelly also had convictions for impersonation of an emergency medical technician, forgery, and probation violation.

During an interview with investigators, Kelly would spontaneously bring up Munchausen syndrome by proxy and she said that it had never been the case at all whatsoever.

Olivia’s grandfather, Lonnie Gatro, who called his granddaughter Libby, saw the little girl just days prior to her death. And he said that when he saw her, she opened her eyes, looked at him, and said, “Papa, I’m hungry.” He also said that Olivia would scream and fight while she was at the hospital and tell her mother, “I don’t want another owie.”

She was just a joy to be around. She was so energetic, so loving and caring, and loved the place. She just loved life so much.

Lonnie Gatro treasured his collection of videos he made of her. Here, Olivia plays doctor because he says that occupied so much of her life.

We had no reason to not believe what Kelly was telling us was going on. The Department of Human Services was not notified until another doctor became suspicious long after Olivia’s death.

That would have saved her life. She’d still be with us today. We’d have custody of her. She’d still be with us.

In the end, over one doctor’s strong objections, the hospital signed off on sending Olivia to hospice at the mother’s request.

She convinced us that it was the best. The doctor said it was going to be the best thing for her and we had no reason not to believe him. I mean, she’s at one of the best freaking hospitals in the country.

Lonnie and Olivia’s other family, who believed that the Children’s Hospital of Colorado should be held responsible for the girl’s death, filed a $25 million lawsuit against them. Shortly after, it would be settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.

In January of 2022, Olivia’s mother, Kelly, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of child abuse that negligently caused her daughter’s death. As part of her plea agreement, the first-degree murder charges were dismissed, and she was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Kelly also pleaded guilty to felony theft and fraud charges, for which she received a combined 13-year prison sentence to be served concurrently.

Olivia’s funeral was held on August 24th, 2017 at the Rock Community Church in Littleton, Colorado. She was then buried at the Seven Stones Chatfield Cemetery.

Well, thank you for listening to Olivia’s story today. This mother is nothing short of a monster; she let her daughter suffer for years. This little girl essentially lived at the hospital for the last five years of her life and for no reason other than the fact that her mother wanted attention and money. It’s disgusting.

What do you think about this case?