Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Kayla Barlow is charged with aggravated child abuse for allegedly introducing bacteria into her son's PICC line.
- Multiple hospitals reported the boy's health worsened during Barlow's visits, raising suspicions of medical child abuse.
- Investigations revealed bacteria and unexplained infections despite adequate treatment, leading to charges.
SALT LAKE CITY — A North Logan woman is accused of intentionally putting bacteria into her young son's PICC line, causing him to become very ill.
Kayla Barlow, 34, was charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with aggravated child abuse, a second-degree felony, following a long investigation by several agencies in Utah and Colorado dating back to 2023.
"(Barlow) has taken her 2-year-old son to multiple hospitals and it is documented that (he) gets well until (Barlow) returns and then falls ill again. (The boy) was found to have bacteria in his bloodstream, which had to be introduced through his PICC line," prosecutors state in charging documents.
In February 2024, a detective with the North Park Police Department in North Logan notified police at the University of Utah that Barlow was being investigated for allegedly abusing her son and that the boy had been admitted to Primary Children's Hospital on Dec. 9, 2023.
"Hospital staff had expressed concern because anytime Barlow visited (the boy he) would immediately begin to get sick. When Barlow left, (the boy) would get better until Barlow returned. (The detective) stated that the hospital had reported human feces in the drip line of (the boy), causing him to become very ill," according to charging documents.
A police detective learned that when the boy was discharged from a hospital in Colorado — where he had been treated for bacteria in his system — he had a peripherally inserted central catheter, or PICC line, inserted for antibiotics and was instructed to go to Primary Children's for a follow up exam, the charges state. But before that appointment happened, the boy had to be taken to Logan Regional Hospital where he tested positive for E Coli, according to the charges.
One doctor told police "there was concern of medical child abuse and that Barlow was introducing infections into the child, resulting in him becoming more ill. (The doctor) stated that positive cultures were occurring despite adequate treatment and there was no other explanation for any other route of introduction," the charges state.
As early as December 2023, doctors were making referrals to the Utah Division of Child and Family Services and telling Barlow "the team of doctors had exhausted all possibilities to explain (the boy's) returning sepsis and could find no internal cause of the infections," according to one of several search warrants served by university police over the past year.
By February 2024, "the hospital became very suspicious of things going on at the hospital with (the boy)" noting "Kayla would come to visit (the boy and) he would immediately get sick, and when Kayla would leave for a few days (he) would get better," the warrant states.
Charging documents also note that Barlow was questioned when her son was born at 28-weeks and she "was found to have a crochet hook with her" which investigators believe was used to induce labor, according to court documents.
