A Texas mother put her perfectly healthy toddler through a nightmare of unnecessary medical procedures, all while convincing the world he was seriously ill.
Kaitlyn Laura, 31, was arrested for fabricating her son’s health problems and putting him through unnecessary surgeries.
“The child is being tortured,” officials said about the 3-year-old son.
A Texas mother put her perfectly healthy toddler through a nightmare of unnecessary medical procedures, including surgery
Image credits: Kaitlyn Herring
Trigger warning: this article contains graphic details that may be distressing to some.
For months, Kaitlyn Laura told doctors her son couldn’t walk or eat properly.
The mother took the boy on multiple visits to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth and claimed he had issues right from the day he was born.
She claimed her son’s birth was traumatic, taking two hours as her oxygen levels kept dropping.
Image credits: Kaitlyn Rose Herring
Doctors “maxed out the medication” to keep her heart pumping, she claimed, and the baby “flipped” before a scheduled C‑section.
However, none of these details were mentioned in her medical reports, which said she had a normal birth, with a pre‑scheduled C‑section.
No complications were mentioned related to the August, 2022, birth.
Kaitlyn Laura, 31, allegedly lied to doctors and claimed her toddler couldn’t walk or eat food properly
Image credits: Kaitlyn Rose Herring
Over the years, Kaitlyn took her son to the hospital multiple times and complained that he couldn’t eat food properly.
She claimed he had cerebral palsy, autism, developmental delays, and other issues.
Kaitlyn allegedly gave the boy medication he never needed, put him in a wheelchair, and lied to doctors so they would place an unnecessary feeding tube in him.
Image credits: Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office
The boy would have to “be in a wheelchair for life,” Kaitlyn claimed in one of multiple fundraising pages she created for the boy.
During hospital visits, she said her son had “stopped eating solid food” at age two, and she maintained a journal to record his food intake. This led to the boy undergoing a surgical procedure to place a feeding tube through the boy’s stomach.
Kaitlyn allegedly gave the boy medication he never needed, put him in a wheelchair, and allowed doctors to perform unnecessary surgeries
Image credits: Kaitlyn Rose Herring
Doctors grew suspicious about the mother when she returned with the boy and claimed he was having trouble with the tube.
The hospital also noticed, on multiple occasions, that the boy would eat multiple meals through his mouth without any issues.
In June 2025, doctors reported possible child medical ab*se to CPS and said they suspected she was lying or exaggerating her son’s condition.
The boy’s school teacher also reported possible child medical ab*se in October, saying he was able to eat solid food and didn’t need a wheelchair or his gait trainer to move around the campus.
The mother pulled her son out of school following the teacher’s report.
Image credits: Kaitlyn Herring
Authorities are treating the incident as a possible case of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP), where a caregiver, typically a parent, makes up or induces physical or psychological symptoms in an individual under their care.
The psychological disorder gained prominence after the case of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, whose mother Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard subjected her to unnecessary medical procedures, to the point where the daughter felt her only way out was to end her mother’s life. The mother claimed her daughter had leukemia, asthma, and muscular dystrophy, and even had brain damage from being born prematurely.
Gypsy was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty for her role in k*lling her mother. “I was facing yet another surgery pretty soon, and I really did not want to have the surgery,” she previously told People on why she took her mother’s life..
Investigators found that the mother created at least three GoFundMe pages to raise funds for her son’s unnecessary treatments
Image credits: Kaitlyn Rose Herring
Investigators found that Kaitlyn not only lied to doctors about her son’s condition but also created at least three separate GoFundMe pages to raise money for his treatments.
Kaitlyn was arrested on charges including aggravated ass*ult and causing serious bodily injury to a child. She was later released from jail on bond on March 29.
“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,” Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn said in a statement.
Bill pointed out how the mother’s claims put her son through unnecessary surgeries, with the most recent invasive surgical procedure being performed in January to place a new feeding tube.
“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,” the sheriff said.
Image credits: Kaitlyn Rose Herring
Additional investigation is expected to look into Medicaid fraud charges for unnecessary medical treatments.
“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,” officials said.
Bill apologized to the unassuming donors of Kaitlyn’s fundraisers, who offered their money thinking it would help a boy with his medical condition.
“To the people out there that gave money to it, I’m very, very sorry, but it wasn’t meant for good stuff,” he said.
“This woman is sick,” one said. Another asked, “Aren’t doctors supposed to confirm these diagnosis’ before following through with invasing procedure?”
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