The Poison in the Feeding Tube

Lisa Faye Goins Was Recently Arrested for Medical Child Abuse and Charged with Injury to a Child. This isn't the First Time She was Suspected of It.

The child who emerged from Cook Children's Medical Center on March 18, 2024, bore little resemblance to the one who had entered it seven months earlier. In August 2023, she had arrived critically ill—septic, with ulcers throughout her gastrointestinal tract, confined to a specialized "posey" restraint bed, and taking a staggering array of psychiatric medications. Medical staff had spent months puzzling over her mysterious symptoms that waxed and waned inexplicably. Yet within weeks of being separated from her grandmother, Lisa Fay Goins, the six-year-old was drinking and eating normally, walking the hospital corridors freely, and displaying none of the behavioral issues that had reportedly necessitated heavy sedation and physical restraints.

Lisa Fay Goins. Much of the information for this article came from this arrest warrant. To date, she has not been convicted of a crime.

For Detective Michael Weber of the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office, the transformation raised disturbing questions. Had this child's suffering been not only unnecessary but deliberately induced? The investigation that followed would uncover a troubling pattern stretching back decades, revealing how a child's medical care had become weaponized against her by the very person entrusted with her protection.

Medical child abuse—formerly known as Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome and now listed in the DSM V as Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another—represents one of the most complex forms of child maltreatment to detect and prove. Unlike more visible forms of abuse, it hides behind a façade of devoted caregiving, often fooling even experienced medical professionals. The perpetrator typically presents as the model of parental concern while actively making up, exaggerating, or causing physical symptoms in their child, leading to unnecessary and potentially harmful medical interventions.

The case against Lisa Goins would first center on a simple yet worrisome allegation: that, in May 2023, she had provided false medical histories to get doctors to place a gastric feeding tube in her granddaughter, a tube that proved entirely unnecessary once the child was removed from her care. But the investigation would eventually suggest a far more extensive pattern of deception, involving multiple hospitals across Texas, numerous fabricated conditions, and shocking parallels to allegations made against Goins more than two decades earlier involving her own son.

The Initial Suspicions

On January 11, 2024, Detective Weber received a call that would initiate a complex investigation spanning decades of alleged medical deception. On the other end of the line was Dr. Jamye Coffman, a board-certified child abuse pediatrician from Cook Children's Medical Center's CARE team. Her concern centered on a six-year-old patient who had been hospitalized continuously since August, a child whose bewildering constellation of symptoms had outwitted the hospital's medical team for months.

Dr. Coffman explained that just days earlier, on January 7th, a family member had approached Emergency Room Social Worker Shallen Fishel with a troubling suspicion: that Lisa Goins, the child's caretaker, might be poisoning the little girl through her gastric feeding tube. The child was Lisa Goins' paternal granddaughter, but Goins, who was in her mid-50s, had been raising the child as her own since she was a baby.

The revelation stunned the medical staff, who now wondered if this might be the reason the child’s perplexing symptoms had failed to improve despite appropriate medical care. In response to the family member's concerns, the hospital had quietly moved Goins and the child to a room equipped with covert video surveillance on January 10th, a rare step taken only in cases of serious suspected abuse.

As the investigation proceeded, hospital staff member Stephany Garza made a discovery that cast the current situation in an even more disturbing light. Searching through old records, Garza found that Lisa Goins had been the subject of similar accusations in 2000, involving her own son. According to Dr. Coffman's report to Detective Weber, those previous allegations also involved similar symptoms (serious gastrointestinal issues, reported seizures that were never observed). The GI issues apparently dissolved once Goins was separated from the victim in that case.

Weber's investigation quickly expanded beyond the hospital walls. Goins’ Facebook account had dozens of public posts chronicling the child's supposed medical journey. In excruciating detail, Goins described graphic medical symptoms, shared photos of the child in hospital beds surrounded by medical equipment, and repeatedly solicited prayers and donations. A GoFundMe page created at Goins' request had raised thousands of dollars for what was described as the child's mounting medical expenses.

The detective's attention was also drawn to a peculiar detail. Virginia Goins, Lisa's mother-in-law, reported finding a nearly empty bottle of nail polish remover on the headboard of the bed where Lisa and the child had been staying the night the child became critically ill and was rushed to Cook Children's in August. This detail struck Virginia as odd; Lisa never polished her nails. Upon returning from the hospital days later, Lisa had removed the bottle.

Virginia Goins also recalled witnessing Lisa dissolving medications, including Benadryl, Melatonin, and Gabapentin, and administering them through the child's feeding tube. According to Virginia, the child would frequently fall asleep at mealtimes and be unable to eat. Even more concerning, Virginia reported that on the night the child had gone unresponsive, she had noticed a Clonidine patch on the child's back, despite Lisa previously claiming they had run out of it.

On January 12th, hospital staff reported that Lisa had left the hospital early that morning but was expected to return in the evening. Detective Weber arranged to be present when she returned. The pieces of the puzzle were coming together, pointing toward a potentially devastating conclusion: the child's medical journey, with its numerous hospitalizations, invasive procedures, and powerful medications, might be the result not of natural illness, but of deliberate deception and harm at the hands of the person claiming to be her most devoted advocate.

The Child's Medical Journey

According to the arrest affidavit, the medical history that Lisa Goins created for her granddaughter was extensive and troubling. Between January 2021 and August 2023, the child had been hospitalized on seventeen separate occasions. Emergency room visits were equally frequent—nine visits recorded between August 2021 and August 2023. Each encounter added another layer to the child's complex medical narrative, culminating in her final admission to Cook Children's in August 2023, where she would remain for seven months.

When interviewed by Detective Weber on January 30, 2024, Goins provided a detailed medical timeline that spanned multiple facilities across Texas. The child had allegedly received treatment at Coleman County Medical Center, a children's hospital in Lubbock, Baylor Scott & White McLane Children's Medical Center in Temple, Brownwood Regional Medical Center, and Cook Children's Medical Center. Goins also mentioned that her cousin, Dr. Richard Byrd of Comanche, Texas, had prescribed medications for the child.

The young child was seriously ill when she entered Cook Children's in August 2023. Dr. Anani, a pediatric gastroenterologist, reported that the child arrived in a state of shock with large and small stomach ulcers. She also had herpes simplex 1 and a Candida infection in her throat. The child was septic, though curiously, no specific blood pathogen was identified in blood samples.

Initial theories focused on ischemia or vasculitis, but testing ruled out both conditions. What perplexed the medical team was the child's unusual course of illness. "Dr. Ogunmola stated that the fact that the victim has gotten better and then regressed on at least one occasion is perplexing," the court documents note. This pattern of improvement followed by setbacks would later be seen as a potential sign of medical child abuse.

According to Lisa Goins, the child’s gastric issues were the tip of the iceberg. She claimed the child had suffered from seizures since November 2018, which Goins attributed to a head injury allegedly sustained at the child's mother's residence. Later, Goins claimed this diagnosis had been refined to "dystonia," not a seizure disorder. However, Sydney Cornelius, the child's biological mother, told investigators that during the six months the child lived with her after the reported fall, she "did not have any seizure or dystonia activity" and "was a normal, healthy child."

The number of psychiatric medications the child was prescribed was incredible: “Clonidine, Gabapentin, Haloperidol, Lorazepam, Olanzapine, Quetiapine, Topiramate, Zonisamide, Oxcarbazepine, and Clonazepam." Many of these are powerful antipsychotics and sedatives.

While the court documents don't explain Goin’s rationale for all these medications, they paint a disturbing picture of her motivation. Dr. Channankara, a psychiatrist involved in the child's care, noted that Goins appeared to want the child "sedated at all times." RN Emma Patterson-Garvin recalled "a specific incident where she was in the room with the victim when the suspect was pushing the psych doctors for an increase in psych meds." Garvin reported administering nine psychiatric medications to the child on a single day, stating that "the victim was drugged to the point of mental impairment."

The medications were ostensibly prescribed to manage the child's reported behavioral issues, but these behaviors largely disappeared once the child was separated from Goins. Multiple nursing staff noted that even before complete separation, the child exhibited better behavior when Goins was absent from the hospital in the evenings.

A critical turning point in the child's medical journey occurred in May 2023 with the placement of a gastric feeding tube. Dr. Murali, the Cook Children's hospitalist who ordered the procedure, later told investigators that Goins had begun requesting the feeding tube on the first day of that hospital admission. While the child was observed eating by mouth during that stay, the tube was ultimately placed "mainly for the victim to receive her medications and to receive supplemental feeds." Dr. Murali was unsure whether the reported difficulty taking medications was observed by nurses or merely reported by Goins.

The use of a "posey bed"—a tent-like enclosure that prevents a patient from leaving the bed without assistance—also raised some red flags. Goins provided several contradictory justifications for the posey bed's use. She told hospital staff that the child "likes the bed" and it was "her happy place," according to RN Maci Crews' documentation on January 9, 2024. Hospital staff repeatedly tried to reduce the use of the restraint bed but faced resistance from Goins. Even Dr. Channankara, the psychiatrist, reported there was "great resistance from the grandmother in removing the posey bed many, many, many times."

The records suggest Goins used it for punishment. Nursing records reveal that the child was confined to this specialized restraint bed for extensive periods: from August 27 to September 1, September 3 to September 30, October 1 to October 20, November 15 to November 30, December 1 to December 3, December 28 to December 31, and January 1 to January 12, 2024. Multiple nurses observed Goins placing the child in the bed when the child hit her, was being loud, or wanted to play when Goins wanted to sleep. When the child exhibited any aggressive behavior, such as swinging a toy, Goins would use this as justification for the restraint. Goins told RN Emma Patterson-Garvin that she wanted a posey bed for the child at their residence when the child was released from the hospital.

What makes this case particularly disturbing is what reportedly happened after Goins was removed from the child's care on January 12, 2024. Her gastrointestinal symptoms resolved, and within weeks, she began taking food and medications by mouth.The transformation was immediate and profound. The child never required the posey bed again. She was rapidly weaned off most psychiatric medications with no adverse effects.

By March 18, 2024, when the child was discharged to her maternal grandmother, Jamie Cornelius, the medical team had determined that the gastric feeding tube was no longer necessary. It was officially removed on August 6, 2024. In the months following her separation from Goins, the child gained weight, exhibited normal bowel movements, showed no signs of dystonia or seizures, and resumed normal childhood activities—a dramatic contrast to the severely ill child who had spent seven months confined to a hospital bed.

A Pattern Emerges - The 2000 Case of Medical Child Abuse

When Detective Weber began investigating the allegations against Lisa Goins in 2024, the discovery of a previous case from nearly a quarter-century earlier proved crucial. In 2000, Goins had been investigated—and ultimately found culpable—for medical child abuse involving her biological son, Ronnie Harrell Jr.

The similarities between the two cases were striking. According to Ronnie Harrell Sr., the father of that child, Lisa Goins had been caught at Cook Children's Medical Center—the very same hospital where the current investigation was unfolding—falsely reporting symptoms that medical staff could not verify. Specifically, she had told doctors that their son had vomited when no such episode had occurred.

"The suspect was caught at Cook Children's Medical Center telling doctors that Ronnie Harrell Jr had vomited when no vomiting had occurred," Harrell told Detective Weber in a recorded interview. "I came to believe that the suspect was inducing illness in the victim."

Beyond fabricating gastrointestinal symptoms, Goins had also presented their son as having a seizure disorder—a condition Harrell stated he never witnessed himself. "He never observed his son have a seizure," the court documents note. The parallels to the current case were unmistakable, with the young girl also being presented as having both gastrointestinal issues and seizure-like episodes (which Goins called "dystonia").

The deception allegedly went beyond symptom fabrication. Harrell recalled coming home from work one evening to find Goins telling him their son was sick. When he spoke with the boy directly, his son revealed something troubling: Goins had not only told the child he was sick when he wasn't, but had administered medication he didn't need.

"Mr. Harrell talked with his son, who told Mr. Harrell that the suspect had told his son that his son was sick and given his son some type of medicine," the court documents state. "Mr. Harrell stated his son told Mr. Harrell that he was not sick and didn't know why the suspect was presenting him that way."

Perhaps most disturbing was Harrell's claim that Goins had once told family members their son had died—a complete fabrication. This level of deception led Harrell to characterize his son's mother as "a habitual liar" during his interview with Detective Weber.

The Department of Family and Protective Services had investigated the 2000 case and determined there was "reason to believe" Goins had committed medical child abuse. During that investigation, Goins reportedly "took and failed a psychological exam." (The court documents don't specify what type of psychological evaluation was administered or what specific aspects of Goins' mental health were assessed.) Despite the finding of medical child abuse and the failed psychological assessment, no further action was taken after Goins completed court-ordered parenting classes.

What happened next may have prevented further harm to the boy. According to Harrell, once his son was returned, "he did not allow the suspect to be around the child and the suspect didn't see the child for years." Harrell and Goins were not married nor together at that time.

The 2000 case revealed a critical systemic failure that would be repeated with the current victim. DFPS "had no policies on investigating Medical Child Abuse in 1999 and has no policies on investigating medical child abuse in 2024 for their attorneys or investigators." This procedural void may explain how, despite a previous finding of medical child abuse, Goins was later able to assume care of her granddaughter without raising immediate red flags in the system.

For investigators in 2024, the discovery of this previous case strengthened their suspicions. The pattern of falsifying symptoms, particularly gastrointestinal issues and seizure-like episodes, suggested not an isolated incident but a persistent behavioral pattern spanning decades and involving multiple victims.

The Evidence

The investigation into Lisa Goins' alleged medical child abuse required piecing together physical evidence, witness testimony, and behavioral patterns to build a comprehensive picture of what had occurred. The evidence ranged from suspicious items found in the hospital room to the dramatic transformation of the child once separated from Goins' care.

One of the most troubling pieces of physical evidence emerged when Detective Brogdon searched the hospital room while Detective Weber interviewed Goins. "Detective Brogdon notified Weber by text that Brogdon had found a bottle of Mean Green Degreaser in the room," the court documents state. This household cleaner contains alkaline, which, according to Dr. Ogunmola, could potentially cause the types of GI symptoms the child had been experiencing if administered through a feeding tube.

Dr. Ogunmola told investigators that the symptoms seen in the child, continuing ulcers in the GI tract and stomach, were "consistent with being poisoned by an alkaline substance through the feeding tube." He further explained that if alkaline had been administered through the feeding tube, it would cause ongoing damage: "alkaline burns continue for weeks after the alkaline is administered through the feeding tube." This could explain why the child would sometimes show improvement but then regress.

The presence of nail polish remover the night the child was rushed to the hospital provided another concerning piece of evidence. Virginia Goins, Lisa's mother-in-law, had discovered "a bottle of fingernail polish remover on the bookcase headboard of the bed in the suspect and victim's room" the night the child became unresponsive and was taken to Cook Children's. Virginia found this suspicious since she knew Lisa didn't polish her nails. When Lisa returned from the hospital days later, the bottle had been removed.

Nurse Maci Crews reported another suspicious incident on January 9, 2024. She observed "white in color cleaning bottles on the windowsill of the room across from the victim's bed." When she started to approach for a closer look, Goins distracted her and drew her attention away. When Crews returned later, she noticed one of the bottles now had a spray nozzle attached. Most concerning, Crews later found that "the sterile water bottle used to flush the victim's gastric button was uncapped and open," despite no medications having been administered through the GI tube by nursing staff.

Patient Care Tech Reilee Williams later reported a similar observation from January 8, 2024, the day after a family member reported suspicions of poisoning. Williams stated she "was in the victim's hospital room with the suspect when Ms. Williams observed a bottle of Mean Green Degreaser on the bathroom counter with a spray top on and another bottle of the degreaser on the window sill in the room with a screw top on the bottle."

When asked directly about whether she had poisoned the child, Goins denied the allegation. However, when Detective Weber informed her that there was covert video surveillance in the room and asked if the footage would show anything concerning about her behavior with the child, Goins responded with an ambiguous, "not that I know of."

Another line of evidence came from Goins' digital footprint. Her Facebook account contained numerous posts about the child's supposed medical journey, often featuring graphic descriptions of symptoms and requests for donations. A separate Facebook page titled with the child's name and "Journey" had been created specifically to chronicle the medical saga and solicit financial support.

When Kathy Raines (Goins' aunt by marriage) asked about accessing this Facebook page after Goins' removal from the child's care, Goins told her "the Facebook page had been 'paused' because the suspect was not at Cook Children's Medical Center." Detective Weber noted that he could not locate this page on January 19, 2024, suggesting Goins had deleted or hidden it after being separated from the child. Nurse Jessica Childs confirmed that the page had still been active but set to private on January 16-17, 2024.

A GoFundMe account created by Kendra McGill at Goins' request had raised substantial funds. Text messages between McGill and Goins revealed detailed discussions about donations. One exchange on December 19, 2023, showed McGill informing Goins about $625 in recent donations, with assurance that she would forward the money to Goins via Cash App after GoFundMe processed the funds.

Of course, the strongest evidence was the child’s rapid recovery once the grandmother was no longer around her. By March 18, 2024, when the child was discharged to her maternal grandmother, Jamie Cornelius, she was taking virtually all her nutrition by mouth. On August 6, 2024, the feeding tube was surgically removed, and she was virtually free of all psychiatric medication.

The totality of evidence—the suspicious chemicals, the behavioral patterns, the dramatic improvement after separation, and the digital paper trail of financial solicitation—painted a disturbing picture. The allegations against Goins appeared to be not isolated incidents but components of a sustained pattern of deception that had subjected a young child to unnecessary medical procedures, powerful medications, and physical restraint for years.

Understanding Medical Child Abuse

Medical child abuse, formerly known as Munchausen by proxy syndrome, represents one of the most complex forms of child maltreatment to detect and prosecute. While each case has unique elements, research has identified patterns and risk factors that help explain this devastating form of abuse.

Those who commit medical child abuse are typically female caregivers who present themselves as devoted, even exceptional parents. They often have some background in healthcare or demonstrate unusual familiarity with medical terminology. Lisa Goins exemplified this pattern, with nurses noting she was "very familiar with medical terms" and "proactive in the victim's care and not just doing what medical professionals told her to do."

A childhood history of trauma, neglect, or attachment disturbance is common among perpetrators. The perpetrator's relationship with their own health often provides clues. Some have histories of frequent medical appointments for themselves or excessive attention to their own health concerns. While the court records don't detail Goins' personal medical history, Ronnie Harrell Sr. described her as "a habitual liar," suggesting a pattern of deception that extended beyond medical contexts.

Financial incentives frequently accompany medical child abuse cases. The GoFundMe account established for the child's medical expenses and Goins' statements to family members that she expected to receive "$80,000 from the state" in disability payments suggest financial motivation may have played a role in this case. The text messages between Goins and Kendra McGill about donations demonstrate active tracking of incoming funds.

Beyond financial gain, psychological motivations typically include attention from medical professionals, sympathy from community members, and the identity validation that comes with being seen as a selfless, devoted caregiver to a medically complex child. Goins' extensive social media documentation of the child's medical journey, complete with dramatic updates and requests for prayers, aligns with this pattern. These posts positioned her as heroically enduring hardship while caring for a critically ill child.

One distinctive feature of medical child abuse is the perpetrator's comfort in medical settings. Unlike other forms of child abuse, where caregivers typically avoid scrutiny, those committing medical child abuse often spend extraordinary amounts of time in hospitals and medical facilities. Goins appeared comfortable navigating complex medical systems across multiple facilities and reportedly spent months living at Cook Children's Medical Center with the child.

The relationship between perpetrator and victim often displays distinctive characteristics. The perpetrator typically isolates the victim from other caregivers during medical appointments, a pattern Marshall Goins described from his own childhood when his father would wait in the vehicle while Lisa took him to see doctors.

What makes this form of abuse particularly alarming is its lethality. Research suggests that the mortality rate for victims of medical child abuse ranges from 6-10%, making it potentially one of the most lethal forms of child abuse. Some studies have found even higher rates, depending on how cases are identified and tracked.

Medical child abuse presents unique challenges for healthcare systems. Unlike physical abuse that might leave visible injuries or neglect that results in obvious deterioration, medical child abuse often masquerades as exceptional caregiving. Perpetrators typically appear highly engaged, concerned, and knowledgeable about the child's condition. They volunteer for hospital stays, attend all appointments, and comply with complex treatment regimens—behaviors normally associated with positive parenting.

Healthcare providers' training emphasizes trusting parents' reports of symptoms, particularly when those symptoms occur outside medical settings. This professional tendency to believe caregivers creates a vulnerability that perpetrators of medical child abuse exploit. Dr. Murali's uncertainty about whether the child's reported difficulty taking medications "was seen by nurses or reported by the suspect to the nurses" exemplifies this vulnerability.

The fragmented nature of modern healthcare creates additional blind spots. When patients move between facilities, as Goins did with her granddaughter, critical pattern recognition may be lost. Each new provider sees only a portion of the medical history, making it difficult to recognize concerning patterns. Dr. Lutley's statement that she "would have proceeded much more cautiously with the recommendation for feeding tube placement if she had known the history of the suspect reference to medical child abuse" highlights this information gap.

Medical child abuse also exploits gaps between medical and child protection systems. Despite a previous finding of "reason to believe" medical child abuse had occurred in 2000, Goins faced minimal intervention—only parenting classes—and no apparent system was in place to flag her involvement with another child years later. According to DFPS Liaison Stephany Garza, even in 2024, "DFPS still has no policies on how to handle a medical child abuse case and provides no mandated training for their investigators or attorneys."

The physical symptoms induced in victims of medical child abuse typically fall into several categories: fabricated (completely invented), exaggerated (minor symptoms reported as severe), induced (actively caused by the perpetrator), or some combination. In the Goins case, there appear to be elements of all three. The psychological symptoms reportedly requiring heavy sedation and restraint appear largely fabricated, as they resolved quickly after separation. The gastrointestinal issues may have been both induced (potentially through substances like the Mean Green Degreaser found in the hospital room) and exaggerated (normal childhood symptoms reported as severe).

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of medical child abuse—and what ultimately provides compelling evidence—is the dramatic improvement that occurs when the child is separated from the perpetrator. As Dr. Cantu noted, seeing a severely ill child dramatically improve with no intervention beyond removal from the caregiver is exceedingly rare outside the context of medical child abuse. This pattern of improvement following separation was documented in both of Goins' alleged victims—her son decades earlier and her granddaughter in 2024.

Distinguishing Medical Child Abuse from Genuine Medical Concern

While it can be extremely hard to tell the difference between a concerned parent of a chronically sick child and a parent whose identity is wrapped up in that role, a look at the research suggests the following distinctions:

Relationship with Medical Staff

• Genuine Medical Concern: Parents are collaborative and appropriately dependent on medical expertise. They're willing to question but generally trust medical recommendations.

• Medical Child Abuse: Perpetrators become overly familiar with staff and are often praised for exceptional caregiving. They can describe the child's symptoms in great medical detail, often use medical terms to impress medical staff, and may interact more as a peer than a desperate parent.

Response to Good News

• Genuine Medical Concern: Parents express relief and happiness when tests are negative or their child shows improvement.

• Medical Child Abuse: Perpetrators may appear disappointed or skeptical with normal test results. They often push for additional testing despite reassurance.

Information Management

• Genuine Medical Concern: Parents openly share medical information between providers and maintain consistent accounts of medical history across settings.

• Medical Child Abuse: Perpetrators control information flow, often "not wanting to share previous medical records or allow healthcare providers to speak with friends and family. They may find ways to prevent the child from speaking privately with providers.

Healthcare Navigation

• Genuine Medical Concern: Parents may seek second opinions but do so transparently, sharing records between providers.

• Medical Child Abuse: Perpetrators engage in "doctor shopping" or "hospital hopping" without disclosing previous evaluations. They may travel long distances to see new specialists.

Child's Symptom Pattern

• Genuine Medical Concern: The child's symptoms remain consistent regardless of who is present. Symptoms align with objective findings and follow expected patterns.

• Medical Child Abuse: Symptoms show suspicious patterns, often "getting worse when they are alone with their caregiver" and "disappearing in the absence of that person."

Social Media Presence

• Genuine Medical Concern: Parents may use social media for support, but posts generally include normal childhood activities alongside medical updates.

• Medical Child Abuse: Perpetrators create elaborate online narratives focused almost exclusively on the child's illness. Their content often includes graphic details and fundraising appeals.

Objective Medical Evidence

• Genuine Medical Concern: The child's symptoms eventually correlate with objective findings, even if diagnosis takes time.

• Medical Child Abuse: There are persistent contradictions between reported symptoms and objective findings. Symptoms may defy medical logic.

Treatment Response

• Genuine Medical Concern: The child responds as expected to appropriate medical treatment.

• Medical Child Abuse: The child's condition fails to improve with standard treatments but improves rapidly when separated from the caregiver.

Focus on Child's Development

• Genuine Medical Concern: Parents balance medical care with normal childhood experiences and developmental needs.

• Medical Child Abuse: Perpetrators overemphasize illness and medical interventions at the expense of normal childhood experiences.

If the claims in the arrest warrant are true, the Lisa Goins case exemplifies many patterns of medical child abuse: displaying extensive medical knowledge, resisting improvements in the child's condition, controlling access to the child, engaging in hospital-shopping, maintaining extensive social media focused on the child's illness, and her granddaughter showing dramatic improvement once separated from her care.

Conclusion: The Invisible Damage of Medical Child Abuse

If the allegations are true, the Lisa Goins case reveals how a vulnerable child's medical journey can be hijacked by a caregiver's psychological needs. From the feeding tube unnecessarily placed in May 2023 to the months spent confined in a posey bed, each medical intervention represented not healing but harm, the very opposite of medicine's fundamental purpose.

Perhaps most disturbing is the case's historical echo. More than two decades earlier, Ronnie Harrell Sr. had allegedly witnessed the same pattern of deception with his son, who also showed dramatic improvement once separated from Goins. The system's failure to protect a second child from the same perpetrator highlights critical gaps in how we identify and respond to this insidious form of abuse.

As the alleged victim recovers, her story serves as both a warning and a beacon of hope. A warning that the most devoted-appearing caregivers may sometimes cause the greatest harm, and hope that with proper intervention, even victims of prolonged medical child abuse can reclaim their health and childhood.

The jury is still out as to whether Lisa Coins poisoned her granddaughter’s feeding tube. But for all perpetrators of medical child abuse, the real poison is in the relationship that twists medicine, designed to heal, into a weapon that harms. In recognizing the warning signs and patterns of medical child abuse, we take the first step toward ensuring that medicine remains what it should always be: a force for healing, not harm.

References

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