In any society, a mother's love for her child is thought to be sacred; but this month in an American court that most universal of instincts is called in question. The child involved is 7- year old, Hannah Milbrandt, her mother 35-year old Teri Milbrandt. The jury must decide if Teri Milbrandt violated the trust of her daughter and perpetuated a sadistic fraud on a caring community. Until March this year, Teri and Robert Milbrandt lived in this house in Urbana, Ohio With their 7 old daughter, Hannah. The Milbrandts lived directly across the street from us over here, and they hav- had lived there for the last couple years. Of course until just recently A typical blue collar family Bob worked as a printer, Teri held a variety of jobs. Both had children from other relationships Only Hannah, their one child from their 9 year marriage, lived with them. I liked them, and my children liked to over there and play I- I thought Teri was a good mother, she seemed like she genuinely cared. Teri, Bob, and Hannah tended the Faith Fellowship, one of Urbana's 24 churches It was from this congregation, the Milbrandts took their closest friends The pastor of the church, Dave Henry, and his wife Amy I would say she was my best friend I confided in her a lot and we had a lot in common, I felt, at the time We laughed a lot and it was just a normal friendship. The kids got along, uh- Hannah, she was Bailey's age. Just seemed like the perfect- ya know relationship, yeah All the kids come up here In April last year, the Milbrand's friends at church heard dome terrible news Bob called on our answering machine, crying Um, Amy and Dave, Hannah's had her doctors appointment today, because Hannah had been having headaches Um- and they had made a doctor's appointment for her. And um- he was crying, emotional. Said we found out that Hannah has a tumor the size of a pea on the back of her brain stem. Robert Milbrandt and his wife Teri then broke the same harrowing news to their daughter. We told her there's a little spot there and we need to go to some doctors to remove it. And uh- where it's at, well they can't do that by surgically removing it. So, you know, you'll have to do some type of uh- s- some type of radiation [Singing] We prayed, day and night, people prayed. Ah- we had prayer chains going everytime something bad happened with Hannah For Hannah, life was beginning to change Hannah wasn't allowed to come out and play anymore, um- with my children. She wasn't allowed to come in our house Uh- saying that uh- she would catch something and it'd be fatal to her. (Woman, at the same time: She'd get sick) We thought that Hannah was going to die. (Woman: Yes) I- I really did believe. And- and I was preparing my daughter for it.
(Woman: Yes) The Milbrandt's friends noticed patches missing from Hannah's hair. Teri Milbrandt asked her closest friend Amy, a hairdresser, for help. She said 'Amy, can you please do something with her hair?' We can't- it keeps falling out on her pillow and everytime we wash it it keeps falling out. And I said, ' Teri what- do you want me to cut it all off? What do you want me to do?' And Hannah started sobbing, she goes 'Please, don't cut all my hair off. Please.' [Razor Buzzing] And I cut it off and- She looked- Hannah looked in the mirror and she said 'Mommy, I look like a boy' And Teri said, 'but you look like a pretty boy, Hannah, and you can wear hats until your hair comes back in it has to be this way.' Couple times, Teresa shaved it to where it was real- you know, with maybe a- a facial razor or something like that. [Razor Buzzing] [Water Spashing] But most of the time If anyone cut her hair they just did it with regular barber's clippers with the thing on it just to keep it even By May, teachers at North Elementary Junior School had made special provisions for their stricken pupil Hannah's school mates were told about her illness, and a day was planned to make her feel less self-conscious Miss. Richardson told me that We're gonna have- sent- she's gonna send us home a paper that's says we're gonna have a- There's a little girl named Hannah that has um- cancer in this school and we're gonna have Hat for Hannah Day All 300 pupils were instructed to wear a hat for the day in solidarity with Hannah Everybody in the school was wearing a hat and so- Hannah felt really happy that people were doing that just for her Emily and Hannah would go on to become best friends [Children Playing] Often she would speak of her fears and worries I felt bad for her, because of her hair and that she couldn't put it up in anything. All she could do was put a hat on over it She said that she wished she had hair, so she could put it up in ponytails. [Children Playing] Hannah would continue to wear her trademark hats to cover her shaved head, along with a surgical mask She had two bandages and her back and neck, which were said to cover chemotherapy ports. [Children Playing] When Hannah's health seemed to worsen, her mother visited North Elementary School to talk to the children about her daughter's illness She warned them- that Hannah might have seizures My teacher said that when she has seizures that- if she shakes or something and we see her- and she- Miss. Prince doesn't see it then we're supposed to get her immediatly and we have to go in a different room because it might be noisy for her. I- I got really scared Throughout all of this, Hannah Milbrandt still seemed to remain positive We thought she was amazing- you know? To be going through what she was going through but to still be- you know- very active She was always coming up to and saying 'Hi.' Ask me how I was. And- you know, I was- I thought was really peculiar because she's asking me how I am and here she- she's the one with leukemia As word of Hannah's illness spread though the community Teri Milbrandt would talk ,in detail, about her daughter's worsening condition and her treatment We would talk We'd talk the whole time she was here and she would go into great detail about what was going on with Hannah and that she had three tumors One was at the base of her neck, one was- uh- in jaw and one was in her spine And she said that they were running, like, chemo and that they were hoping that it was going to shrink it By now, Teri reported that Hannah was enduring a hefty course of medication Teri would explain that she drove her daughter to regular chemotherapy appointments in a nearby city And latterly, she talked about a healthcare nurse called Beth that would visit Hannah at home three times a week There was a pill box and there was always this long chemo pill Which Teri would say- you know- they would crush it up and put it in her applesauce I can remember Bob and Teri telling Hannah, this one specific pill she had to chew She had to chew it up because it had- like- the roof of her mouth had to absorb it [Pills Clacking] By May, news of Hannah's illness had also reached the fire department Emily's father, Dave Curnutte, brought the story to his colleagues attention And when they heard that the Milbrandt's didn't have medical insurance to cover Hannah's treatment they donated 500 dollars from union funds but it didn't stop there Dave: Today's my cook day, I'll be cooking lunch and dinner for the 7 guys on shift Lot of guys don't like uh- my meals because I can't cook that well. We have one good cook on our shift, and it's uh- Dave Vinski, back there He's a really good cook It struck everybody, I think, everybody has kids here at the station and when everybody found out about it, it was unanimous, uh- everyone wanted to give money and do whatever we could to help them out. Through this door right here This is out fire gear room We um- gave the family uh- all expenses paid trip, for the whole family, to King's Island for a weekend Uh, that was a uh- a special wish for uh- Hannah, that's what she wanted. [Phone Ringing] Right here we have our rec room. Uh, guys can come in here after hours, after 4 o'clock and play Foosball get on the computer, uh- get on a little game here that we have, it's a fire engine One of our Captain's actually gave them money out of his own pocket to buy a puppy for Hannah, that Hannah had wanted for awhile This is Fire Chief's office Chief MacIntosh [Laughs] We went to a bake sale they had at North Elementary School and guys were buying you know- 40, 30, 30, 40 dollars for a loaf of bread just to give her family money and uh- that was some of the things we did and you know, we told them that if there was anything else we could do, to call us. And the Milbrandts were certainly appreciative of the firefighters generosity. She tells everyone that the firemen helped her get her puppy and she thinks they are very cool guys She's looking forward to coming to the fire station soon for a visit and bringing her puppy to show you Hannah now has a MediPort in her lower neck to draw blood and recieve medication though because her veins are getting so bad. She's lost weight, is now down to 33 pounds. Well, may God continue to bless all of you, I think you are awesome guys. Teri, Hannah, and Bob Milbrandt. It wasn't just the Fire Department that were helping the Milbrandts The whole community was pitching in In America, charity's collect the ring pulls from soft drink cans, known as pop can tabs The aluminum is recycled and the money donated to charity or to an individual's medical bills Local school children were collecting them for Hannah Milbrandt One of Hannah's helpers, even made the local news herself Reporter: There was a girl, that saw this story on Channel 2 and sh- she can barely breath, she's in a wheelchair, and can barely breath. I mean, she has to have a respirator to breath and she saves pop tabs so she afford her medical bills And she saw this story about Hannah and she gave up her hard-earned poptabs to give to Hannah [Stephanie Talking, Unclearly] Mother Interprets: I've been collecting them since I was 8-years old so that's 9 years We- we could use the pop tab money to pay for things that Stephanie might need but we feel it's more important to give to others. With help from friends, Teri Milbrandt would go door to door with homemade collecting tins asking local businesses for financial assistance I can't tell you how many times I reached into my own pocket. and maybe had a couple of dollars and threw in this can and threw it that can You know? It wasn't a big deal, I didn't care. They were telling us that they were paying 500 dollars a week. That's 2000 dollars a month For Hannah's chemo Teri's Mom, Mary, helped by selling candles to raise money for her grandchild's treatment There seemed no limit to Urbana's charity Yup, this is- this is Grimes Honeywell here. Employee's took up a donation here and the business met the donation amount that was donated by the employees. This is the church that the Milbrandts attended. They- they did a considerable amount to assist them with their bills We as a church, a small church, we- we raised uh- a little over 7000 dollars You know, there- there's a lot of places you can go and- and you'll- you'll get donations You'll get donations this size but usually those cities are a much larger than this these people, here, actually gave til it hurt. By October, Teri Milbrandt was telling the community that Hannah's condition was worsening Her mother told me she had 6 months to live So, I told Emily, 'not much longer' By November, Hannah was receiving counseling at her school In an attempt to prepare her, for her possible death Hannah asked Santa Claus for Christmas, if she could be spared But by the time Christmas came, teachers at North Elementary had made a shocking discovery and Hannah was in protective custody. [Music Playing] In November of last year, teachers at North Elementary School in Urbana, Ohio had become concerned about one of their pupils For over 6 months they had never thought to question the fact that 7-year old, Hannah Milbrandt had leukemia But now, they were beginning to wonder.
