Background: Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas (Google Maps). Inset: Denise Zamora (Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office).
A Texas woman is facing nine felony charges after she was accused of forcing her teenage daughter to undergo numerous “unnecessary and potentially harmful” medical procedures, including a feeding tube she didn’t need.
Denise Zamora, 40, was arrested by Tarrant County police on Dec. 18 after suspicion grew concerning the medical treatment of her 15-year-old daughter. According to the 20-page arrest affidavit obtained by KDFW, a local Fox affiliate, Zamora was caught on camera during a hospital visit when staff questioned her account of her daughter’s condition. Zamora was allegedly seen “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.”
The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office accused Zamora of allegedly lying to medical professionals for years about her daughter’s health and putting the girl through several unnecessary procedures for health issues she never had over six years.
Zamora was charged with nine felonies, including endangering a child, injuring a child, and assault with a deadly weapon. The affidavit stated that the deadly weapon was the scalpel that was used to insert the feeding tube. She is also accused of allegedly providing false medical histories to doctors, including lists of symptoms — allegedly headaches, stomach pains, seizures, severe menstrual symptoms, and nausea — she claimed her daughter experienced going back to 2018.
KTVT, a local CBS affiliate, reported that one of the conditions listed in the affidavit was Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow in multiple organs. Zamora also claimed her daughter required the use of a wheelchair, was deaf and nonverbal, and that she had a learning disability. The affidavit stated that Zamora would always answer for her daughter during medical visits.
According to the affidavit, a doctor concluded that Zamora’s daughter was a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental disorder that involves a caregiver faking or creating medical symptoms in another person. It is also known as factious disorder imposed on another.
In all, Zamora’s alleged actions resulted in her daughter visiting the ER seven times, staying in the hospital 12 times, receiving 44 different diagnoses, and being prescribed 19 different medications. Zamora was also charged with allegedly administering ketamine to her daughter.
In addition to her alleged actions regarding her daughter’s medical treatment, Zamora was also accused by the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office of — but not charged with — faking her own uterine cancer diagnosis in order to solicit monetary donations from others, “going as far as shaving her head and claiming to be undergoing chemotherapy treatments.” The affidavit also claimed that she may have committed Medicaid fraud in the amount of $500,00 to $1 million, which may possibly lead to an investigation.
Zamora is being held on $50,000 bond at Lon Evans Correction Center. The affidavit said that if she made bond, she would have no contact with her daughter or anyone under 17.
