Texas mom charged with medical abuse after toddler son had unnecessary surgeries, feeding tubes placed

GLEN ROSE, Texas (TCN) -- A 31-year-old mother has been charged with injury to a child and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the alleged medical abuse of her 3-year-old son.

The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office announced the charges against Kaitlyn Laura on April 2, NBC News reports. She was arrested March 19, People reports. According to an arrest affidavit obtained by NBC News, Laura allegedly misled medical professionals about her son’s health to obtain a feeding tube for him.

According to investigators, the child was taking 17 different medications at once and ate only 1,000 calories a day, including dog food, WJHG reports.

Laura allegedly told doctors her son, whose name has not been released, stopped eating solid food at age 2 and had needed oxygen and medication after experiencing a traumatic birth. She requested a feeding tube in March 2025 and said it had been recommended by another health care professional at a different location. NBC News reports that an investigation did not find medical records or documents that corroborated Laura’s claims. 

Laura allegedly told doctors that her son’s condition worsened over the next two months. The arrest affidavit states Laura was resistant to alternatives to the feeding tube and was “pushy” about having one placed, NBC News reports. On May 20, 2025, a tube was placed surgically; 10 days later, Laura claimed she was having trouble with the tube, and the child was readmitted to the hospital.

During the child’s admission, staff reportedly saw him eating by mouth and moved him to a room with video surveillance when they began to suspect medical abuse, according to NBC News. The staff stopped feeding him by tube and the boy reportedly ate French toast, pancakes, chicken, quesadillas, rice, fries, and pasta during the stay, according to the arrest affidavit. 

In October 2025, a teacher at the child’s school filed a CPS report, claiming he ate normally and did not need a wheelchair or leg braces despite his mother’s claims. NBC News reports the child was not removed from Laura’s care for an independent assessment and Laura soon withdrew the child from the school. 

The child was hospitalized from Dec. 26, 2025, to Jan. 9 after a gastrojejunostomy tube was surgically placed. NBC News reports Laura had requested its placement at a different hospital. Also known as a GJ-tube, this method of feeding goes directly from the stomach to the intestine. There was no medical need for this tube, and the child was placed into foster care on Feb. 14, where he has been walking and eating normally. He is being weaned off his medications, WJHG reports.

As part of the investigation, the child’s father was interviewed, NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reports. He said Laura was employed as a home health professional and had knowledge of feeding tubes and medical terminology due to her work. He said he relied on Laura to communicate with doctors about the child’s condition and noted that there were inconsistencies in her story.

According to a statement People obtained from the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office, an investigation into potential Medicaid fraud is ongoing, and “detectives are aware of at least three separate GoFundMe accounts created by Laura to solicit monetary donations for both herself and her child’s medical expenses.”

Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn said, “This narcissistic person, for their own pleasure of getting the sympathy for having a fragile child, is what we see playing out in front of us … the child is being tortured. … There are scars on his body from those surgeries that weren’t necessary, and he’s going to have to be told, ‘Why are they here?’ So there could be trauma for many, many years to come,” People reports.

Laura was released on March 29 on $75,000 bond, per People.

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