True Crime
Gypsy Rose Blanchard Claims Mom Dee Dee Tricked Doctor Into Removing Her Salivary Glands
Gypsy Rose Blanchard is sharing new details about the medical abuse she claims she endured at the hands of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, including how a doctor was persuaded to remove her salivary glands.
Gypsy, 34, appeared on the Tuesday, June 9, episode of the We Need to Talk podcast, host Paul C. Brunson asked her about some of the medical procedures she underwent as a child, and she pointed to a scar around her neck.
“My salivary glands that produce saliva was [sic] removed from my neck,” Gypsy explained. “My mom would put Orajel – before we would go into the doctor’s appointment – on my mouth, to make me drool.”
The mom of one continued, “Okay, so upon examination, the doctor saw me drool. It’s excessive drooling. ‘There is a way to take care of that. So let’s remove the salivary glands.'”
However, Gypsy claimed that one doctor in particular suspected that Dee Dee was suffering from “Munchausen by proxy” – a form of abuse in which a caregiver exaggerates, fabricates or causes illnesses in a person under their care as a way to gain attention or sympathy.
“That doctor had put in the medical records in his notes from that day: ‘suspicion of mother with Munchausen by proxy,'” Gypsy told Brunson. “He put that in the medical record. My mom would always request a copy of the medical records after every appointment.”
She added, “We guessed … we all think that she’d seen that in the medical record and chose to leave, and not go to that doctor again.”
Gypsy became a household name when she gained national attention after the 2015 murder of her mom, Dee Dee, whom authorities said had subjected her daughter to years of medical abuse. She was arrested in connection with the death of Dee Dee, and in 2016, she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
Gypsy was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and she served close to eight years in prison before being granted parole in December 2023.
Since her release, she’s welcomed daughter Aurora with boyfriend, Ken Urker.
