This story is a very tragic story today.
How does a child, born at normal weight,
grow to weigh nearly 700 pounds by the time she's 13?
And who is responsible for that?
Take a look.
WOMAN 1: Marlene Corrigan is accused of endangering
her daughter's life by not--
MAN 1: The child weighed 680 pounds the day she died.
WOMAN 2: Been to a doctor since 1992.
WOMAN 3: Her body was covered with bed sores.
MAN 2: That deserves criminal charges.
(ECHOING) Criminal charges.
MARLENE CORRIGAN: I was a good parent.
I did everything that I thought a normal parent should do.
(ECHOING) Parent should do, parent should do.
OPRAH WINFREY: Those are the words of Marlene Corrigan
after the tragic death of her 680 pound,
13-year-old daughter Christina.
But with the case making headlines
all over the world, many are asking, was that enough?
Christina Corrigan was born weighing about eight pounds,
but quickly, Christina's weight just went off the charts.
By age three, she weighed 60 pounds.
By age eight, she weighed almost 240 pounds.
Christina saw a doctor over 90 times.
But eventually she got discouraged and stopped going.
In less than five years, her weight
tripled to over 600 pounds.
It seemed that Christina became a prisoner in her own home
and her own body.
She stopped going to school and rarely left the house.
Eventually, her 13-year-old body just gave up.
Ultimately she could not sustain all the weight,
and died of heart failure at 13 years old--
680 pounds.
Her body was found covered in bedsores,
in feces, and her own urine.
Christina's mother was questioned about her death,
and eight months later was charged
with felony child abuse.
Marlene was facing up to six years in prison.
MARLENE CORRIGAN: Well, what are you to do?
Lock your child in a room and stop them from eating?
Then I will be up for child abuse or child
neglect for not feeding her.
OPRAH WINFREY: The judge lessened her charge
and only convicted her of a misdemeanor.
She is now awaiting sentencing.
Marlene Corrigan says that her ability as a mother
should never have been on trial, but the question does remain--
did Christina's life have to end?
Christina's mother Marlene is here today with us
in Amarillo in her very first television interview
since her recent conviction on charges of child abuse.
She is joined by her attorney Michael Cardoza.
The question we just asked in the videotape--
did her life have to end the way it did?
In hindsight, looking back over her life,
there might have been things that maybe we could have done.
Maybe I could have been a more aggressive parent.
I tend to be a laid-back type person.
But all throughout Christina's life, we really, really tried.
She tried very hard, and I did, to control her weight.
And there was nothing, absolutely nothing,
that we were aware of that could prevent the weight
from keep on adding on.
OPRAH WINFREY: Did she have some kind of--
well, obviously she was very much overweight.
But was there a medical reason connected to the reason,
responsible for her gaining weight so rapidly?
Oprah, I was raised to trust the doctors and the HMO
that I was going to.
I really trusted Christina's pediatrician.
She did thyroid tests on Christina,
and there was no problem with her thyroid.
And the only advice that the doctor would give me
would be diet and exercise, diet and exercise.
OPRAH WINFREY: And did she diet and exercise?
MARLENE CORRIGAN: Yes, she did diet, and she exercised.
We went to the doctor every week and got weighed and monitored.
The doctor would monitor the food that she
was eating and everything.
Christina would put on two or three pounds at every weigh in.
And--
OPRAH WINFREY: Was she exercising?
What kind of exercise?
Swimming, walking, bicycling.
She liked to play tether-ball and sports at school,
but there was absolutely nothing that the doctor
told me at that time that I could pursue.
Did the doctor put her on a diet?
On a pyramid-type diet.
Well, we went to a nutritionist that
gave us a pyramid diet where you eat
so many different exchanges.
And--
OPRAH WINFREY: And did she follow that program?
MARLENE CORRIGAN: She followed that program.
OPRAH WINFREY: And instead of losing weight, she gained?
MARLENE CORRIGAN: She gained. She kept gaining and gaining.
OPRAH WINFREY: And what would the doctor
say when that happened?
Eat less, exercise more.
She had no-- and at that time, I didn't know that there could be
other problems existing, like a genetic or glandular something,
that maybe I should have pursued.
OPRAH WINFREY: So she wasn't tested for any of those?
MARLENE CORRIGAN: No.
OPRAH WINFREY: How many doctors did you go to?
MARLENE CORRIGAN: Well, in the HMO that Christina--
that I belonged to--
she had one pediatrician assigned to her.
But we must have seen, throughout the years,
a dozen doctors.
OPRAH WINFREY: So she stopped going to school in what year?
MARLENE CORRIGAN: After the sixth grade, when she was going
to go into the seventh grade, she quit going to school
because, number one, the physical layout of the school
was built on a hill with many, many stairs to go up and down.
OPRAH WINFREY: And she couldn't physically--
MARLENE CORRIGAN: Physically it--
OPRAH WINFREY: --get up the stairs.
MARLENE CORRIGAN: --was very difficult for her.
And then the harassing from the other kids.
The older kids tended to tease her and taunt her,
and she just didn't want to deal with it any longer.
When she was younger, she was spunky.
She had a good attitude about her.
But when she was in her pre-teens, like any pre-teen,
she was self-conscious.
OPRAH WINFREY: I read in the newspaper--
and you can't believe everything you read--
MARLENE CORRIGAN: True.
But I certainly read in the newspaper
where the report of her death was described as her last days.
And last days, last weeks, she suffered.
She was bloated, she was in her own feces, she was--
you're shaking your head, as a lawyer.
MICHAEL CARDOZA: I am shaking my head.
- Because that's not true? - That's absolutely not true.
No, no.
She became incontinent when she died,
and that's what the papers picked up.
And that's what got sensationalized.
So when you read or when you hear
that she lived in her own feces and urine,
it was absolutely untrue.
OPRAH WINFREY: That is not true?
That is not true.
How did you find out that--
were you home when she passed?
MARLENE CORRIGAN: Yeah, I stayed home with her that day.
She had what we thought was a cold.
She had a lot of congestion.
I had a cold the week before, so I stayed home with her.
She had asked me.
Did she have bedsores?
That was also reported. Was that true or not?
MARLENE CORRIGAN: Well, to the extent that it was reported,
I was not aware of all those bed sores.
OPRAH WINFREY: Because--
She had a couple of sores on her legs
that I knew about, but certainly not hundreds of bed sores.
Had she been lying there in the same position
for days, weeks? MARLENE CORRIGAN: No.
No?
That's another misconception of her.
She did get up and move around. She did not--
OPRAH WINFREY: Could she move around?
How much could she move around at 680 pounds?
Not a lot. OPRAH WINFREY: Not a lot.
She couldn't jump up and move around,
but she did move around.
In fact, she would even go out and get the mail or newspaper.
But Christina herself is the one that wanted
to be confined to the house. She did not--
OPRAH WINFREY: And she took care of her own personal hygiene,
right? She didn't want you to help?
Of course.
She was 13 years old.
So do you think she did an adequate job of that?
Um, probably not.
But at that time I was caring for elderly parents,
too, that were terminally ill.
And I was pretty spread thin.
So if she said she washed up--
I, you know, took a shower and everything.
OPRAH WINFREY: But you were living--
And I was working, too. OPRAH WINFREY: --there with her.
You can see her.
You can-- you were living there with her.
You can see her.
MARLENE CORRIGAN: Right, it was adequate.
OK, OK, you think it was adequate?
MARLENE CORRIGAN: Right.
OPRAH WINFREY: OK, and you were taking care of your parents?
MARLENE CORRIGAN: Yes. - Yeah.
MARLENE CORRIGAN: And they both died that year also, so.
OPRAH WINFREY: It was a terrible year for you.
Oh, we are truly a sandwich generation.
I mean, taking care of your children
and your parents, whatnot.
OPRAH WINFREY: Do you think--
I've read, and we heard you say on the tape,
that you did the best that you could.
Do you think that the best that you could was good enough?
No.
Looking back in hindsight now, of course I--
I think all parents, no matter what you do with your children,
you always think, well, I could have done this better.
I could have done that better.
Even with my son, who's in college and doing well,
I always think--
OPRAH WINFREY: Is your son also overweight?
MARLENE CORRIGAN: No. OPRAH WINFREY: OK.
MARLENE CORRIGAN: No, he's normal.
OPRAH WINFREY: When you say that-- you said to us, just
as you were here, that you thought that maybe, you know,
you were a laid-back person, and perhaps maybe you could
have been more aggressive.
Do you think you were not aggressive enough?
Probably not.
Christiana was a very strong-willed
personality versus my kind of laid-back, you know, person--
OPRAH WINFREY: But she's 13 and you're the mom.
MARLENE CORRIGAN: Oh, but that's--
you know, it's very difficult to make a person that large,
that doesn't want to do something, to make them do it.
I tried motivating her in every--
OPRAH WINFREY: So you're saying she
wasn't large just because she was sitting around eating?
MARLENE CORRIGAN: Oh, no.
No, no.
Christina never ate as many calories
as it would have taken to maintain that weight.
There was something definitely wrong.
And unfortunately, they never did an autopsy.
And I'll never know if she had a glandular, or genetic,
or some type of problem.
But no, she never ate that much.
OPRAH WINFREY: We're going to talk to your lawyer
in a few moments.
And I know what every-- what I'm thinking.
And I'm sure that a lot of other people are thinking this.
OK, you might be a laid-back person,
and you're a passive person, but when you see your daughter
going from 200 pounds to 300 pounds,
and then gaining an enormous amount of-- what,
420 pounds is 680 pounds.
Something inside yourself--
I don't know.
Does it say, I've got to do something?
This isn't normal.
I've always-- I was always, throughout
Christian's whole life, very, very
concerned about her weight.
I tried to get help even from the social services people,
and there was nothing that they could provide me.
It's-- you know--
OPRAH WINFREY: You thought she was going to outgrow it?
[COUGH] Excuse me.
I thought that she would--
well, I don't know about outgrow it.
I know Christina would probably always have a weight problem,
but as she got older--
like myself-- probably take it off.
Which, I have, you know, all through my life
I've had a weight problem.
I've had a-- my mother was obese.
So it's not something new to me.
We've lived with obesity in my family.
OPRAH WINFREY: But your son is not?
No.
OPRAH WINFREY: OK.