North Texas mom suspected of child abuse Googled: ‘Is lying to doctor about child illegal’
A North Texas mom suspected of medically abusing her toddler searched online for information about deleting social media, munchausen by proxy syndrome and the legality of lying to a doctor about a child, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
Jessica Gasser is accused of faking her child’s medical issues and causing unnecessary treatments, a condition known as munchausen by proxy syndrome. Experts refer to this manipulation of the medical system as medical child abuse.
The Star-Telegram was not able to reach Gasser, who lives in Rusk County, for comment.
Gasser was arrested July 13 on suspicion of serious bodily injury to a child. The allegations stem from a hypoglycemia test Cook Children’s Medical Center staff in Fort Worth performed in February at Gasser’s insistence, according to the affidavit. The test involved Gasser’s toddler having her blood drawn 28 times over the course of a day. The affidavit alleges the blood draws are considered bodily injury to a child because the test was unneeded and Gasser knew it.
From 2021 to 2023, the affidavit says, the child has seen 12 medical providers, been on over a dozen medications, undergone repeated tests for nonexistent ailments and stayed in multiple hospitals — and none of it was necessary.
The affidavit includes search history from Gasser’s laptop. Some of the searches on her laptop from June 2023 include:
Can investigators pull social media without a warrant
Tarrant County medical child abuse cases
How to delete archived posts on Instagram
How long does search history stay recoverable
How do you fix munchuasen by proxy
Is lying to a doctor about a child illegal
Gasser’s last search likely would have revealed that lying to a doctor about a child’s medical problems is not actually illegal. A bill in the Texas legislature sought to change that this year, but the proposed law failed. Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office Detective Michael Weber, who wrote Gasser’s affidavit, was one of the primary advocates of the proposed law, HB 3381.
The bill would have made it a crime to intentionally misrepresent or lie to a medical professional about a person’s medical history or symptoms for the purpose of obtaining unnecessary medical treatment for a child, elderly person or person with a disability.
‘Significant red flags’
The affidavit lays out a timeline of alleged medical abuse beginning in January 2021, when Gasser took her child to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. She told a doctor the child was not eating and Gasser wanted doctors to give the child a nasogastric tube, a type of medical catheter inserted through the nose into the stomach.
The Houston doctor tried to dissuade Gasser from an NG tube because he did not think the child needed it, according to the affidavit. Another doctor at the hospital did the procedure; that doctor told Weber that “the NG tube was placed… 100% off the history provided by (Gasser).”
When it comes to medical treatment for young children, medical staff often rely on parents to tell the truth about their child’s symptoms. In medical child abuse cases, experts say parents provide vague symptoms and ailments that are difficult to prove or disprove.
In 2022, medical staff at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas became suspicious of Gasser. A doctor referred the child’s case to the hospital’s REACH child abuse team, which found “significant red flags” of possible medical child abuse, according to a report included in the affidavit. Because the child had not yet had any surgeries that posed a serious risk of infection or complications, the REACH team said the case did not legally rise to the level of reportable medical child abuse.
Gasser removed the child from the Dallas hospital and sought treatment at Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin. Gasser told medical staff the child had gastroparesis, even though Dallas hospital’s tests had ruled out the disorder, according to the affidavit.
In April 2022, the child stayed in the Austin hospital for 10 days so medical staff could monitor her nutrition, which she was then receiving through a gastrostomy-jejunostomy or GJ-tube, which is placed into the stomach and small intestine. According to the affidavit, Gasser would stop the continuous feeding tube feeds even when staff told her not to do so.
The Austin doctor observed the child eating without problems while in the hospital, the affidavit says. The child was doing so well, he offered to remove the GJ-tube. Gasser said no, according to the affidavit.
The doctor consulted the hospital’s child abuse team, but they did not feel they had enough evidence to report abuse.
Social media following
Throughout the hospital visits and treatments, Gasser posted to thousands of people about her child’s ailments and health issues. According to the affidavit, she posted on TikTok about her daughter having disorders that doctors had already ruled out. She started a GoFundMe for her child’s medical expenses. In October 2022, Gasser applied for and received a free flight to a Cleveland hospital through Miracle Flight, a company that provides free airfare to medically complicated children.
That same month, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services began investigating Gasser for medical child abuse. The case was eventually closed.
In total, three doctors reported Gasser to the Department of Family and Protective Services for suspected medical child abuse: Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, McLane’s Children’s Hospital in Temple and Woman and Child Health Center in Longview. Two others, Children’s Medical Center in Dallas and Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, consulted with their respective child abuse teams about Gasser for suspected medical abuse.
Experts on medical child abuse say a lack of training and protocols in the justice system can leave children in medically abusive households. Medical and criminal justice experts say more education for Child Protective Services and family courts staff would help prevent children from remaining with abusive parents.
Child removed from care
In February 2023, Gasser sought treatment for her child at Cook Children’s Medical Center. She again told doctors that her child had gastroparesis and ketotic hypoglycemia and that her child had a central line surgery scheduled, according to the affidavit.
On Feb. 9, Cook Children’s reported Gasser to the Department of Family and Protective Services for possible medical child abuse.
On Feb. 21, the child was admitted to Cook Children’s and evaluated for ketotic hypoglycemia through a test that required 28 blood draws. The results were normal, the affidavit says.
When the child was discharged, the doctor advised Gasser and her husband to stop various, unnecessary treatments and to let the child “walk, interact and play.”
Instead, in May, Gasser took her child to a hospital in Temple, the affidavit says. She told doctors her child needed a port placement, a small, implantable device that allows liquids to be directly inserted into the veins.
In June, DFPS removed the child from Gasser’s care. The child was admitted to the hospital and was able to wean off all medications, except for megace, a medication used to increase hunger. According to doctors’ testimony in the affidavit, the child had been on megace for long enough that her adrenal glands no longer functioned, and if it was discontinued or given improperly, the child could die.
After the child was released from the hospital, according to the affidavit, the child gained weight and was more active and “giggly.” One of the child’s primary care doctors said in the affidavit she was struck by how different the child was. She said if the child really had the disorders Gasser claimed she did, she wouldn’t expect the child to suddenly improve so much.
