?Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,? scammed by family

Ty Pennington, host of Extreme Makeover, Home Addition, the show that might have been scammed, photo via Fame Pictures

In March of 2009, on an episode of the wildly popular television program, Extreme Makeover, Home Addition, a family with 2 very ill little girls was awarded a house built specifically to their needs by the generous, and heart-warming show.

The Cerda family was awarded with a fancy new home specially equipped with air filtration systems for their two ailing daughters, who suffer from combined immunodeficiency disease. The problem: the daughters may not be sick after all.

Not long after the family took possession of the custom-built home, they put it up for sale and moved to Oregon citing factors such as taxes and medical bills which made it financially impossible for them to stay in the house.

According to a comprehensive report in The Oregonian, the Cerdas tried to assemble a new medical team in their new hometown, but doctors there didn?t find anything wrong with the girls. In fact, they were so skeptical that they reported the Cerdas to child welfare services, who then took custody of the children.

A legal battle ensued, and six different doctors testified against mother Terri Cerda, saying the girls were not sick and accusing her of having Munchausen by Proxy syndrome. Munchausen by Proxy is a mental disorder that causes the sufferer to intentionally harm the children in their care in order to get attention from medical professionals.

Though no doctors testified on Cerda?s behalf, The Oregonian reports that a pediatrician at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center confirmed that the children had been diagnosed with Primary Immune Deficiency Disease.

Cerda told The Oregonian that several medical documents the family submitted to the court were refused as evidence. ?We have several hundred pages of medical documents that prove our kids have been diagnosed with immune deficiency disease since they were four years old,? she said. ?We saw doctors that were top notch in the world. The kids have been tested, and you can?t lie about lab work.?

After all the arguments on both sides, a judge has seen fit to return the girls to the custody of their father, Chuck Cerda.

The girls and their mother are now back in Las Vegas with their original team of medical personnel.

According to AOL, they asked ABC to comment, but they?re not dignifying this story with a response. The underlying message we?re getting from them, though, is that the allegations have some major holes. So, take the story with a grain of salt.

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Source: http://www.imperfectparent.com/topics/2011/05/18/extreme-makeover-home-edition-scammed-by-family/

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