Investigators say hospital surveillance recorded two separate incidents days apart.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio mother was charged with child endangerment after police said she injected what appeared to be feces into her hospitalized child’s IV line at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, according to a criminal complaint and court records released this week.
The allegation, documented in hospital surveillance footage reviewed by investigators, prompted an immediate criminal case and a court order limiting the mother’s contact with minors. Authorities have not publicly detailed the child’s condition, but the accusation centers on an IV line connected to the child’s hand while the child was receiving hospital care. The case is drawing scrutiny because it unfolded inside a major children’s hospital, where staff members reported noticing suspicious activity and then monitoring later visits before calling police.
According to the complaint, hospital staff first became concerned on Feb. 6 after video from the child’s room showed the mother, identified by police as Tiffany Le Sueur, injecting a “foreign substance” into the child’s IV. Investigators said staff members increased monitoring after that observation. Two days later, on Feb. 8, staff members again reviewed surveillance and reported seeing Le Sueur enter a bathroom carrying a cup, then return and handle a syringe before allegedly injecting material into the child’s IV line. The complaint describes the material as appearing to be fecal matter. A hospital employee notified authorities after the second incident, police said.
Police said the Feb. 8 footage showed the mother placing what appeared to be human waste into a syringe and then injecting it into an IV line connected to the child’s left hand. The complaint describes staff members watching the sequence on video and reporting it to officers, who treated the allegation as a child endangerment case. Investigators did not publicly release the full video, and the child’s age and identity were not disclosed in the publicly shared summaries. Authorities also have not said whether the child showed signs of infection or other harm, and they have not described what testing, if any, confirmed the material’s contents.
Le Sueur, 35, is from Maumee, Ohio, according to booking and court records cited in published reports about the case. She was arrested Feb. 9 and booked into the James A. Karnes Corrections Center, according to those records. She appeared in court Tuesday, Feb. 10, where a judge set conditions that included no unsupervised contact with minors. The order also barred her from contact with her child outside of supervised settings, as the case moved into its early court phase.
The criminal complaint places hospital staff at the center of the initial reporting. It describes staff members noticing an apparent injection on Feb. 6, then taking steps to monitor later visits before calling police after the Feb. 8 incident. The complaint does not specify how long the video monitoring had been in place before Feb. 6, but it describes the staff members’ review of surveillance from the child’s room and their observation of the mother’s movements into and out of a bathroom with a cup. The allegation is unusual because it involves suspected contamination of an IV line, a medical device designed to deliver fluids or medicine directly into the body.
Nationwide Children’s Hospital has not released a detailed public account of the incident in the reports describing the case. Police also have not publicly described a motive, and the court documents referenced in news coverage do not indicate whether investigators suspect a pattern of prior medical interference. A child welfare response was not described in the brief summaries released publicly, but the court’s bail conditions were aimed at limiting the defendant’s access to children while the case proceeds. It was not immediately clear from the published accounts whether Le Sueur had an attorney who could speak on her behalf.
Outside court, the case has sparked strong reactions because it involves alleged harm carried out in a controlled hospital setting. Christie Jenkins, chief executive officer of the Family and Child Abuse Prevention Center, told a television station that children may not understand or be able to report what is happening to them in situations like the one described in the complaint. Her comments underscored why hospitals and other caregivers often rely on staff vigilance when a child is too young or too sick to describe events clearly. Officials have not said whether additional charges could be considered later, including charges tied to potential injury, because the publicly shared case descriptions focus on the child endangerment filing.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 19, according to court information reported in the case coverage. At that hearing, prosecutors are expected to outline evidence supporting the charge and a judge will determine whether there is probable cause to send the case forward. Investigators may also present additional details from surveillance or hospital records as the case develops. For now, the allegation remains a charge, and the case is in its earliest procedural stage in Franklin County.
The investigation remains active, with the complaint’s timeline centered on Feb. 6 and Feb. 8 surveillance observations and the Feb. 9 arrest. Authorities have not released further updates about the child’s medical status or whether additional security steps were taken at the hospital after the report to police. The next public milestone is the Feb. 19 hearing, when the court record is expected to expand with more detail about the allegations.
Author note: Last updated February 15, 2026.