Tarrant County mom’s lies led to daughter getting feeding tube, report says
FORT WORTH, Texas - A Tarrant County mom was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly abusing her daughter by falsely claiming she had medical conditions, leading to treatments she didn’t really need.
Denise Zamora is facing nine felony charges related to the case.
The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office said that for years she lied and manipulated hospital staff and physicians at Cook Children’s Medical Center so that they would perform unnecessary medical treatments on her now 15-year-old daughter.
Zamora’s arrest affidavit is more than 20 pages long and details how she allegedly falsified symptoms such as headaches, nausea, stomach pains, heavy menstrual bleeding, seizures, and spinal issues beginning in 2018.
They led to the girl using a wheelchair, having a feeding tube inserted, seven ER visits, 12 hospital admissions, 44 diagnoses, and 19 different medications prescribed.
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Zamora’s daughter is reportedly deaf and non-verbal and communicates via sign language. The affidavit says her mother would always answer for her during medical visits.
But as suspicion mounted, Zamora was placed under video surveillance while in a hospital room with her daughter.
The affidavit says she "was caught on covert video surveillance taking a syringe from the vanity and using the syringe to insert what appeared to be a clear unknown liquid into the victim’s feeding bag and then taking the feeding bag down and pouring some of the contents into a cup…. then presenting to the nurse that the victim had thrown up."
A doctor’s medical assessment listed in the warrant believes the child is a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental health disorder in which a caregiver creates the appearance of health problems in another person.
Detectives say Zamora refused to provide an explanation for the allegations against her.
When confronted about her actions, investigators said Zamora "denied doing anything to the victim and continually blamed the doctors."
Zamora is now charged with four counts of endangering a child, three counts of injury to a child, injury to a child causing serious bodily injury, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
One of the charges is related to the unnecessary administration of Ketamine and other pain treatments that her daughter became dependent on.
And the doctor’s scalpel used to insert the feeding tube constitutes the deadly weapon in this case, the sheriff’s office said.
Zamora also falsely claimed that she had uterine cancer.
"The suspect deceived her family and friends, going as far as shaving her head and claiming to be undergoing chemotherapy treatments," the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
Investigators are now looking into possible Medicaid fraud charges and other possible charges related to the donations Zamora collected for her daughter and herself.
Anyone who may have donated money to her on fundraising platforms is urged to contact Det. Michael Weber at 817-884-3749.
If Zamora bonds out of jail, she is ordered to have no contact with her daughter.