A mother in Louisiana is facing multiple charges after failing to keep up with her child’s medical appointments. According to LaShonda Zenon, she simply didn’t have the time to make sure the appointments were kept. It’s never OK to repeatedly skip medical appointments for kids, but that’s especially true if they have complex medical needs. Zenon’s child was recovering from a major surgery that had complications. The more she chose to ignore the appointments, the more she was risking her child’s health. As a result, she lost custody, but even still, she refused to allow her child to be taken.
Her child was recovering from a major surgical procedure.
Officers from the Shreveport Police Department went to the State Office Building on March 9, 2026, after receiving a “welfare concern” call, KSLA reported. The report was initially made by a caseworker from the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services, or DCFS, who had heard from multiple medical facilities about possible medical neglect involving a 6-year-old.
The child had undergone brain surgery in October 2025 after being diagnosed with a brain mass. The child had multiple post-surgery complications, including secondary adrenal insufficiency, post-op diabetes insipidus, and hypopituitarism, per KSLA. As a result, the child needed consistent follow-up care.
Hospital staff told police the child missed seven appointments and another six were canceled. Staff had done everything they could to contact LaShonda Zenon about the appointments, but she never responded.
Eventually, the state had no choice but to intervene.
DCFS received a formal complaint of medical neglect on January 14, Shreveport police noted in a news release. As the investigation went on, the agency obtained an order for custody of the child on February 26.
Police detectives assisted the agency in trying to locate the child, but none of the attempts to do so at the home was successful.
DCFS returned to the home on March 9, and staff saw Zenon inside the home, but she refused to open the door or answer phone calls. At the time, the agency still had custody authority of the child, but law enforcement did not have authorization to enter the residence, per the news release. Law enforcement personnel were granted authority by a judge the following day.
Authorities saw Zenon outside the home around 5:30 p.m. She reportedly approached a vehicle and put items inside before returning to the home, the release noted. When officers knocked to announce their presence, she refused to open the door.
Her reasons were questionable at best.
Officers were placed around the home and discovered Zenon trying to leave from the back of the house with her children by scaling a 6-foot fence. She was quickly apprehended “following a brief foot pursuit,” police shared in the news release.
Her three children were “crying, sweating, and visibly shaken” when DCFS took custody of them, the news release noted. They also had minor scrapes and cuts from scaling the fence.
When police arrested her, LaShonda Zenon told them she had gotten a phone call from an unknown person and had a “feeling” law enforcement was coming, KSLA reported. When she saw the officers outside, that’s when she gathered up her kids and ran.
Zenon admitted she didn’t take her child to their appointments because she “had been busy and did not have time.”
“That is not an acceptable answer,” Shreveport Police Department Public Information Officer Chris Bordelon said, according to KSLA. “When it comes to the well-being of a child, it is a priority, and it is the highest priority. So, if your child needs medical treatment, not having time to get that for them is not an excuse, and that’s not a reason for a child not to receive medical treatment — especially when we’re talking about something like brain cancer.”
Zenon was charged with resisting an officer with flight and obstruction of court orders, according to the news release. Police also found narcotics in the home, which resulted in more charges: possession of schedule I narcotics, and three counts of controlled dangerous substances in the presence of juveniles.
