'Their own pleasure of getting the sympathy': Mom forced son into getting multiple unnecessary feeding tubes, police say

A Texas woman has been arrested after at least a year of medical abuse in which her toddler son needlessly received a feeding tube and other medical treatment, Lone Star State police say.

Kaitlyn Rose Laura, 31, stands accused of serious bodily injury to a child and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office.

The defendant was arrested on March 25, after an officer with the Glen Rose Police Department contacted detectives in Tarrant County the month before, according to an arrest obtained by CBS News.

But the allegations date back well before.

The officer said Laura lied about her son's medical history to get him an unnecessary feeding tube at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, the county seat of Tarrant County, in 2025. Police in Fort Worth, however, referred the case to police in the tiny town of Glen Rose — which is located some 60 miles southwest of Fort Worth — because Laura and her family live there, the warrant says.

After local police turned the case over to the Johnson County District Attorney's Office, no law enforcement action was taken. The charging document notes that the county only has two officers and lacks the sufficient resources to deal with a complex case like Laura's.

State officials did follow up, and Child Protective Services (CPS) contacted Tarrant County deputies in February of this year.

The alleged abuse had continued, according to CPS.

Laura allegedly attempted to remove her son from the care of Children's Medical Center Dallas against the advice of doctors there after being flagged for suspected medical child abuse.

This time, the CPS investigator said Laura claimed her son could not eat by mouth and kept him confined to a posey bed — a tent-like enclosure designed to keep high-risk patients, like those prone to falling down or suffering from cognitive impairments, from leaving without assistance. Such a bed can only be opened from the outside.

This incident prompted CPS to separate mother from son, police noted in the warrant. After the separation, the boy began eating pancakes and sausages and was mobile, according to law enforcement. Physicians at both hospitals alleged medical abuse — including the claim that Laura forced her son to use a wheelchair.

In an affidavit from the Fort Worth hospital, pediatricians outlined a series of alleged discrepancies between Laura's claims about her son and the boy's actual medical history, police said.

In June 2025, the defendant allegedly claimed her son had a complicated breech birth in the summer of 2022. This required that he be "flipped" before a scheduled C-section, Laura allegedly said, adding that doctors "maxed out the medication" to keep her heart pumping. But medical records showed the boy was born by way of a normal, prescheduled C-section without any complications.

And although Laura also allegedly told a nurse she could not get her son to eat, the nurse was able to feed him with no issues, police said.

Laura allegedly gave a different doctor a different story about her son's birth, according to the warrant. In this version of events, the boy's traumatic birth lasted some two hours and his oxygen levels kept dropping to the point where medication was required. The child's birth records showed no such thing, police said.

The warrant summary of a pediatrician's affidavit goes on to allege Laura claimed her son "stopped eating solid food" at the age of 2 and noted that the defendant kept food journals leading up to the feeding tube placement. Meanwhile, the Fort Worth doctor was able to feed the child without difficulty. Laura also allegedly claimed the boy could only eat after being given an appetite stimulant.

Laura also allegedly said her son had suffered two distinct seizures despite a normal EEG performed at the children's hospital in Fort Worth. She also claimed her son had cerebral palsy, a mitochondrial disorder, autism, and developmental delays, police allege.

In requesting the posey bed, the defendant allegedly claimed her son had broken three cribs at home with "leg kicking," though staff at the Fort Worth hospital said the child did not require the specialized bed once he was separated from his mother, according to the warrant.

The story about how her son "needed oxygen at delivery" resurfaced in an initial evaluation at Cook Children's in April 2025, police said. Laura also described a prior visit to a doctor in Waco resulted in further testing, feeding therapy and possibly medication. But Laura allegedly told the hospital this doctor was "disregarding" and had instead attributed all of her son's feeding issues to neurological problems and autism. The hospital said this was just not true.

During a March 2025 appointment at the Fort Worth hospital, the defendant allegedly said her son "always had difficulty gaining weight" and told gastrointestinal staff that the boy's sheets "smell like acid," according to the warrant. Laura allegedly attributed the smell to her son throwing up throughout the night. The next month the mother's requests for the feeding tube began, law enforcement claims.

A pediatrician reviewed one such tube request and found nothing to support it in the child's documentation, police said. A rehabilitation provider cited in the same request surmised the defendant was twisting their words about the child's condition and needs.

Also in April 2025, the boy returned to the Fort Worth hospital in response to a claimed bout of dehydration and sudden food aversion. The child's father, oppositely, told staff his son had eaten half a bag of popcorn and a full bag of chips without issue. Staff determined the child was not, in fact, dehydrated and discharged him.

After continued efforts, a feeding tube was placed in May 2025. Later that month, the family returned to Cook Children's — but by this point, staff suspected medical abuse and moved the boy to a room with a hidden camera. In June 2025, Laura told a nurse she tried to feed him but this was contradicted by video. Eventually, the hospital stopped tube feeds, removed the tube, and discharged the child.

Around this time, concerns were first raised with law enforcement.

While the case ping-ponged between jurisdictions, the defendant allegedly obtained a different feeding tube at the Dallas hospital in December 2025. The boy was discharged this January but returned in February for a tube replacement after his mother complained about leaking, according to the warrant. After that final hospitalization, Laura and her husband lost custody of the child.

Following her arrest, Laura was released on bond with conditions that include no contact with the victim or other children under 17.

"So 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," Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn said in comments reported by CBS News. "And in truth, the child is being tortured."

Authorities are also said to be investigating Laura for fraud over three different alleged GoFundMe campaigns for the child.