A San Antonio mother is facing a felony charge after her 2-month-old baby was taken to the hospital with a swollen leg and doctors found multiple fractures, including injuries at different stages of healing. Brenda Inolia Young was arrested and charged with injury to a child, according to FOX San Antonio.
The baby was taken to University Hospital on August 23, according to WOAI, after Young noticed the child's leg was swollen while changing a diaper. Doctors identified a recent spiral fracture in the right thigh bone as well as older injuries. University Hospital operates the only Level I pediatric trauma center in South Texas, a designation that gives its emergency and medical staff specialized resources for evaluating severe pediatric injuries and suspected abuse, according to University Health.
A Body Full of Breaks, in Different Stages of Healing
Doctors also reported fractures in both thighs, the left forearm, ribs, the right wrist and the left shin, along with a possible fracture near the left ankle, according to the station's report. The injuries were in different stages of healing, indicating they did not all occur at the same time. A child-abuse specialist determined that the pattern was consistent with abuse, while tests found no bone-health condition that could explain the fractures, FOX San Antonio reported.
Young and her boyfriend were the baby's primary caregivers, sharing feeding and diaper duties, according to the same account. Young told investigators she did not know how the injuries happened, denied ever hurting the baby, and said she had never seen anyone else hurt the child.
Boyfriend Describes a Fall While Holding the Baby
Young's boyfriend told investigators that he was feeding the baby early that morning when he got up, tripped over a 25-pound dumbbell and fell while holding the child. The baby cried after the fall but later fell asleep, FOX San Antonio reported in its account. Investigators said that account did not explain the older fractures, which doctors found to be in different stages of healing.
The report said the baby's fractured forearm had developed an obvious deformity and that investigators believed it would have been difficult for a regular caregiver not to notice. Young is being held in Bexar County jail on $25,000 bond, according to FOX San Antonio.
How Texas Law Treats Injury to a Child
Under Texas Penal Code § 22.04, injury to a child is a felony that ranges from a state jail felony up to a first-degree felony punishable by 5 to 99 years or life in prison when committed intentionally or knowingly and resulting in serious bodily injury, according to FindLaw. The statute defines a child as anyone 14 years of age or younger, meaning an infant automatically falls under the state's most elevated child protection provisions, per the Texas Penal Code.
Criminal liability under that statute can apply not just to direct physical acts but also to omissions by a caregiver who has assumed care, custody or control of a child, according to the L&L Law Group. That means a caregiver who fails to seek necessary medical treatment or fails to protect a child from harm can face the same felony exposure as someone who directly caused an injury. Defendants charged with felony injury to a child in Bexar County undergo magistrate review to set bond and release conditions based on community safety and flight risk, per Goldstein & Orr, which is the process that produced Young's $25,000 bond figure. The firm also notes that Texas law provides specific affirmative defenses distinguishing accidental injury from criminal negligence, recklessness or intentional acts, and prosecutors must prove a culpable mental state beyond a reasonable doubt to secure a conviction.
Mandatory Reporting and a Parallel State Investigation
Under Texas Family Code § 261.101, medical personnel and any member of the public who suspect child abuse or neglect are legally required to make an immediate report to state authorities or law enforcement, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. That duty cannot be delegated by professional reporters, including healthcare providers, to a supervisor or third party, per the same agency, which is part of why hospital staff acted quickly once the fractures were discovered.
Separate from any criminal case, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services' Child Protective Investigations division conducts its own administrative inquiry alongside law enforcement whenever severe physical harm to an infant is reported, according to DFPS. Those investigations determine whether protective custody or family intervention is warranted independently of any criminal prosecution.
State oversight of these investigations has also drawn legislative attention. In 2025, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 140, creating a Child Protective Investigations Advisory Committee within DFPS to review closed CPS cases and evaluate investigative standards across the agency's regions, according to KVUE.
What state data show
The available statewide figure does not measure all confirmed abuse involving infants, but it provides broader context: the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services reported 77 confirmed abuse- and neglect-related near fatalities in Texas during fiscal year 2024. That figure alone does not establish how common confirmed infant-abuse cases are or show a trend specific to infants.
