Stillwater Mother Accused Of Failing To Get Baby Medical Attention For Brain Injury

A Stillwater woman has been arrested after allegedly failing to get her child medical attention for a life-threatening brain injury that, medical officials said, shifted the little boy’s brain nine millimeters. 

Investigators with the Payne County Sheriff’s Department said 29-year-old Cady Flowers went out with her boyfriend the night her 1-year-old son allegedly fell from atop a table. 

“She initially obstructed the investigation and wouldn’t tell law enforcement who she was with the night before and, in fact, denied ever being away from the house,” Investigator Rockford Brown said.

According to court documents, back at a neighbor’s house, a babysitter noted the child “woke up and began to cry and began throwing up congealed milk,” the sitter called his mother for help. After Flowers arrived 30 minutes later, the child “continued to vomit and cry out in pain.”

The sheriff’s department obtained frenzied text messages Flowers sent after returning home that night saying, “I need u”, “bad right now”, “can u make it over.” And in an apparent text to the child’s father she sent, “Call me when you get this ur son is severely sick,” “it ur son u need to call me.”

Flowers still did not take the child to the hospital.

According to investigators, she sent additional messages complaining of a headache, due to the child’s crying all night.

The next morning at around 8:30 she called Stillwater Family Care telling a nurse she couldn’t get the child to open his eyes and that he’d been vomiting since 8 p.m. the night before.

Investigators said medical staff urged her to bring the child to a hospital.

Later, at around 11:30 that morning Flowers took the 1-year-old to Stillwater Medical Center, where doctors evaluated the child and transferred him to St. Francis hospital in Tulsa.

“Whether by accident or intentional, it was severe head trauma. The child suffered subdural hematoma, so he had blood on his brain causing his brain to shift almost 9 millimeters,” Brown said.

The child has been released from the hospital into DHS custody. Flowers is still being held at the Payne County Jail on $20,000 bond.