Showing Suffocated: The True Story of Wes Tognoni's Suffocation by David Tognoni

“Your son Wes has been suffocated,” terrifying words that sent a stunning blow to a father’s heart. Frantically, Dave Tognoni, drives five hours to the hospital horrified with a torment of thoughts, saying, “Hang on Wes, hang on.” He finds his intelligent, active toddler son now in intensive care - naked, sedated, and unconscious. When the accident happened, his wife, a trained paramedic, had started CPR, but it was too late. After heart-wrenching weeks of inconsolable tears, rocking Wes, gathering family support, the verdict was in: massive brain damage. Wes would live out his life with severe/profound Cerebral Palsy – brain damage – in a wheel chair functioning at the level of an infant. Dave and his wife divorce; later, Dave finds out that all is not as it seems. His ex-wife is unrelenting in her attacks through the divorce courts using his two older children as monetary pawns leaving him financially ruined and his children estranged. Dave watches a horrific documentary on TV about Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome (Factitious Disorder by Proxy) where mothers use suffocation, poison etc. to gain attention and/or control. Dave's ex-wife eerily fits the psychological profile! This is the true story of a divorced father, demonized by the liberal court system, ensnared in a web of bewildering deception, relentlessly attacked and jailed by his ex-wife. Dave survives the devastation of Wes’ suffocation, boldly unraveling the facade to reveal the truth.

Endorsement: "Munchausen by proxy, also called factitious disorder by proxy, is easily one of the most disturbing variants of child maltreatment. Bathed in secrecy, MBP involves the willful, volitional feigning, exaggeration, or induction of illness in a child--typically by the child's own mother. Dave Tognoni provides rare insight into his son's respiratory arrest and subsequent life-long physical and mental impairment, his suspicions of deliberate suffocation arising only after he fortuitously learned about MBP from the media. Readers will find themselves engaged, disturbed, and--most importantly--enlightened as a result of Dave's compelling account."

Marc D. Feldman, M.D.
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Adjunct Professor of Psychology
The University of Alabama