NBC Dallas-Fort Worth<\/a>, Waybourn said it was \u201cabsolutely sickening, when we\u2019ve got a person who knowingly and intentionally simply tortures a child.\u201d He added that his own adopted daughter was once a victim of medical abuse.<\/p>\nThe case was referred to Tarrant County in February by the Glen Rose Police Department, where Laura resides, after the department said it lacked the resources to investigate the allegations.<\/p>\n
Court records were not immediately available Sunday, and it is unclear whether Laura has retained an attorney. She did not respond to a request for comment sent by NBC News to multiple email addresses found in public records.<\/p>\n
A pattern of deception<\/p>\n
According to an arrest affidavit, Laura had been systematically misleading medical professionals about the health of her 3-year-old son in order to obtain a feeding tube.<\/p>\n
She allegedly told doctors at Cook Children\u2019s Medical Center that her son had stopped eating solid foods at age 2 and that she had experienced a traumatic childbirth requiring high levels of oxygen and medication \u2014 claims that were contradicted by a review of medical records, according to the affidavit. <\/p>\n
At a March 2025 appointment, Laura told a physician that her son had \u201calways had difficulty gaining weight and meeting his BMI,\u201d the affidavit states. She specifically requested a gastrostomy tube, commonly known as a g-tube, claiming it had been recommended by another provider. Investigators found no documentation supporting that claim.<\/p>\n
Between April and May, Laura allegedly reported to doctors that her son was refusing solid food, vomiting, and experiencing a \u201cdeteriorating\u201d condition. Physicians later described her as \u201cvery pushy for a g-tube from the beginning\u201d and said she was \u201cextremely resistant\u201d to alternatives.<\/p>\n
A gastrostomy tube was surgically placed on May 20, 2025. Ten days later, the boy was readmitted after Laura allegedly reported problems with the device.<\/p>\n
Caught on camera<\/p>\n
During that inpatient stay, hospital staff observed the child eating multiple full meals by mouth. When medical child abuse became a concern, he was moved to a room equipped with covert video surveillance.<\/p>\n
Footage reviewed by investigators showed Laura telling staff her son refused all foods \u2014 including his favorites \u2014 while the recordings captured no such behavior. Once staff grew suspicious, they stopped tube feedings. According to the affidavit, the boy ate all his meals by mouth without difficulty for three consecutive days.<\/p>\n
The boy allegedly ate all his meals by mouth without issue for three days. <\/p>\n
“He gained weight on these oral feeds prior to leaving the hospital,” the affidavit said. “His diet included French toast, pancakes, chicken, quesadillas, rice, fries, and pasta.” <\/p>\n
Doctors also alleged that Laura repeatedly insisted the child be medicated despite his appearing calm, and requested he be confined to a specialized hospital bed with a tent-like enclosure that could only be opened from the outside.<\/p>\n
A case that nearly slipped through the cracks<\/p>\n
The case was initially reported to the Fort Worth Police Department, which has jurisdiction over the hospital’s area, but was forwarded to the Glen Rose Police Department where Laura resided. Glen Rose then referred the case to the district attorney’s office. <\/p>\n
Child Protective Services closed its case without removing the child from Laura\u2019s custody. She subsequently left Cook Children\u2019s care and began seeking treatment at Children\u2019s Medical Center Dallas, the affidavit said. <\/p>\n
Staff at Cook’s Children said they did not know Laura was taking her son to Children’s Medical Center Dallas, but even if they did they would not have been able to discuss any concerns without her consent due to medical privacy laws, the affidavit said.<\/p>\n
A second CPS report was filed in October 2025, this time by a teacher at the boy\u2019s school who said she observed none of the medical issues his mother had described. The teacher noted that his development \u201cfar exceeds what his mother describes\u201d and that he could move without a wheelchair or leg braces and ate normally. Investigators again did not remove the child to assess his condition independently. Laura withdrew her son from the school shortly after the report was filed.<\/p>\n
“It should be noted that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services provide their investigators with no policies or mandated training on how to address medical child abuse,” the affidavit said. <\/p>\n
Further procedures and eventual intervention<\/p>\n
In December 2025, Laura sought additional treatment at Children\u2019s Medical Center Dallas, allegedly continuing to falsify information about her son\u2019s condition while requesting surgery to insert a gastrojejunostomy tube <\/p>\n
A gastrojejunostomy tube, or GJ-tube, is similar to g-tube but extends from the stomach to the intestine to allow direct feed into the intestine, according to the Children\u2019s National pediatric health system website. <\/a><\/p>\nThe child underwent that procedure and was hospitalized from December 26, 2025, through January 9, 2026. He was readmitted to the hospital in February due to leaking of the GJ-tube and was admitted inpatient, the affidavit said. <\/p>\n
During that stay, Laura allegedly discussed obtaining total parenteral nutrition (TPN) \u2014 intravenous feeding that requires placement of a central line \u2014 for her son. The affidavit states he showed no medical need for the intervention. That request prompted another CPS report, and the child was removed from his family\u2019s care on February 14.<\/p>\n
Since entering foster care, he has been eating normally and no longer requires a wheelchair. His foster mother, a nurse, reported that he \u201chas no problems eating or drinking without any medical aid\u201d and that she has not needed to use the feeding tube since his discharge, according to the affidavit. <\/p>\n
Fundraising and family<\/p>\n
Investigators also identified several GoFundMe campaigns in which Laura was asking for money due to her child’s purported medical condition. The descriptions provided by Laura in the fundraising pages were found to be inaccurate, according to the affidavit. <\/p>\n
She claimed, among other things, that her son had experienced \u201cheart codes\u201d and had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy \u2014 assertions that a child abuse pediatrician at Children\u2019s Medical Center Dallas disputed in the affidavit.<\/p>\n
In an interview with investigators, Laura\u2019s husband said he was unaware she had requested TPN for their son or that she had sought hospice care for him at some point in 2025. He \u201cappeared shocked\u201d upon learning this information.<\/p>\n
He told investigators that Laura had previously worked in home health at a company specializing in patients with feeding tubes, giving her medical knowledge he did not possess. He said she had assumed full medical caregiving responsibility for their toddler while he cared for their two other children. The affidavit notes that the other children were not removed from the home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Texas woman has been charged with falsifying her toddler\u2019s medical history to manipulate doctors into performing unnecessary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-236408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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