EXCLUSIVE
A Sydney mother suspected of trying to kill her children revealed how she went ‘numb’ when doctors diagnosed her unborn daughter with crippling spina bifida.
Vanessa Hoffmann allegedly stabbed her three children, including her paraplegic daughter, at the family home in Baulkham Hills in Sydney’s north-west on Monday morning.
She is then alleged to have tried to take her own life, stabbing herself repeatedly in the stomach, before her husband Josh was woken by the children’s screams and allegedly wrestled the knife from her.
Hoffmann, 47 and her children – daughters 16 and 13, and son, 10 – were rushed to Westmead Hospital where they are in a stable condition, and she was arrested and is under police guard in her hospital bed.
A decade ago, the mother of three revealed how she had resigned from her job in December 2007 as the couple concentrated on starting a family – before being given the devastating diagnosis of her daughter’s incurable condition.
‘Much to my surprise and delight, a week after leaving my job I found out I was pregnant,’ she wrote on news site Mamamia in August 2013.
Hoffmann said their lives changed forever in April 2008 when they underwent a 18-week ultrasound check up.
‘My husband and I have spent the past five years on an emotional, sad, amazing, hard, rewarding and hopeful journey,’ she admitted in 2013.
‘We had the scan at a local ultrasound clinic and were so very excited to see our baby for the first time!
‘Our first sonographer didn’t say much to us and said he hadn’t been in the job that long. He went out of the room to get a second opinion, which we thought nothing of.
‘By the time the third sonographer came to check the scan however, I was starting to get nervous.’
As the minutes ticked by and more medical experts were called in to assess the scans, they realised something was seriously wrong.
Their worst fears were confirmed when the clinic’s doctor urged them to check in with their personal physician immediately.
‘My appointment wasn’t for another two weeks, but the doctor quickly and strongly told me I would need to see her that same day. “I will go call her. Stay here and I’ll be back,” the doctor said,’ she wrote.
‘With that, all three sonographers standing in the room left the room quickly behind the doctor.
‘Josh and I were left in a dimly lit room by ourselves, not having a clue what just transpired.
‘We waited a painstaking 30 minutes for the scans. We sat in that waiting room completely numb, not knowing what was wrong or what to think, or even what to pray.’
Hoffmann said they did not dare even glance at the scan as they raced to their doctor’s office and presented it to her.
‘She took us immediately into her office and proceeded to read the scan report filled with medical terms I had never heard of. I asked her, “What does all that mean?”,’ she wrote.
‘She said, “Your child has spina bifida.” There was a long pause as tears started rolling down my face.’
As the couple struggled to come to grips to the diagnosis, she said they were introduced to specialist Dr Carolyn West.
‘We a saw a compassionate professor from Royal North Shore Hospital who confirmed the diagnosis and put us in touch with the leading spina bifida specialist at the time, Dr Carolyn West,’ Hoffman wrote.
‘Dr West was absolutely amazing. She sat in a room with us for three and a half hours answering every question we had on anything and everything.
‘She outlined the likely prognosis for [our daughter] and nothing was sugar coated.
Hoffmann credited Dr West’s care and compassion for giving them the strength to tackle the challenge presented by the diagnosis together.
‘With renewed hope in a very devastating situation, we went home, exhausted but thankful we received accurate information,’ she wrote.
‘Dr West gave us great hope in how people who have spina bifida have the potential to live quite an independent life and, on the whole, these kids have a nice temperament and are pleasant to know.’
She said despite her condition, their first born was ‘the light this world needs’ and the love of their lives.
‘[Our daughter] is now a beautiful five-year-old girl [in 2013] who is a high-level paraplegic, has hydrocephalus, epilepsy and is preparing to start mainstream school next year in a support unit,’ she wrote.
‘As many people would agree, she is a light to this world and blesses everyone she meets. She would be excited to tell you she has a healthy little 20-month-old sister, who she loves to pieces.
‘This sometimes overwhelming journey has helped make Josh and me who we are today.
‘It has helped us connect with others we wouldn’t have otherwise met and blessed us with such a bubbly, precious, happy little girl who loves life and people.’
She added: ‘I have heard very sad stories from other families who were given a spina bifida diagnosis that involved being told their child would be brain damaged, have no quality of life or even die.
‘For the most part, this information is completely inaccurate and leads to families enduring more unnecessary trauma.’
The local community rallied around the family, who previously lived in nearby Castle Hill, and helped raise money towards a $90,000 special wheelchair for their daughter after both parents developed back injuries.
Hills Police Area Command Detective Superintendent Naomi Moore said police allege Hoffmann was acting erratically in the days leading up to the alleged attack and it is believed she was suffering a psychotic episode.
‘It’s a family home and that family is not known to police. No domestic violence incidents have ever been reported to police; it’s completely unexpected,’ Det Supt Moore said on Monday.
‘It’s certainly not something I want to wake up to on a Monday morning. It’s a tragic morning. Those children should make a full physical recovery.’
One neighbour, who asked not to be identified, described the children as ‘friendly and lovely’.
Another neighbour was in shock and couldn’t believe the stabbing had happened in the family home.
‘They are nice neighbours and quiet but very friendly. There’s no way we’d ever have expected something like this to happen,’ the neighbour said.
‘We didn’t hear a sound and slept through the whole thing until we heard the police sirens.
‘We really feel for Josh. He’s such a nice, normal lovely man and he always used to stop by for a chat whenever we saw him in the street.’
The Hills Shire Council Mayor Michelle Byrne said the incident was ‘devastating’ for the local community.
‘As a mum and a mayor, my heart breaks for those children,’ she said.