SALT LAKE CITY — A 34-year-old North Logan woman is facing charges for allegedly intentionally putting bacteria into her young son’s PICC line, causing him to become very ill.
Tuesday, Kayla Barlow was charged in 3rd District Court with aggravated child abuse, a second-degree felony, following a lengthy investigation by several agencies in Utah and Colorado dating for the past two years.
According to a warrant for Barlow’s arrest, in February 2024, a detective with the North Park Police Department notified police at the University of Utah that the woman was being investigated for allegedly abusing her son and that the boy had been admitted to Primary Children’s Hospital on Dec. 9, 2023.
The hospital’s staff had expressed concern because anytime Barlow visited the boy he would immediately begin to get sick. When Barlow left, he 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, the charging documents detailed.
Police discovered 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. 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.
A 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 probable cause statement detailed.
In December 2023, doctors reported Barlow to Utah Division of Child and Family Services, explaining that they had exhausted all possibilities to explain the boy’s returning sepsis.
Several months later in 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 stated.
Court paperwork also note that Barlow was interviewed when her son was born at 28-weeks and she “was found to have a crochet hook with her” which police suspected was used to induce labor.
Individuals arrested and charged in complaints are presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.