Deric and Brooklynn Cahill, Flower Mound business owners and parents, say a doctor wrongly reported them to Child Protective Services after they sought medical treatment for their son and gave negative feedback about the doctor’s care.
Deric said that on July 14, his 18-month-old son, Rowan, was suffering from a fever for over three days so they took him to Children’s Health PM Urgent Care in Flower Mound. The doctor, who Deric called Dr. Huston, briefly listened to the boy’s lungs and looked at his ears and throat, and then advised them to take him to a hospital emergency room to have a full evaluation done, Deric said, saying the fever could be caused by “anything.” The doctor didn’t ask about Rowan’s condition or behaviors, outside of the fever, Deric said, and he told her that “this interaction felt extremely transactional and we would evaluate our options.” The doctor was with Rowan for less than five minutes, Deric said.
Before leaving the parking lot, Deric wrote a 1 star Google review for the urgent care center, and also emailed the company to tell them what happened and how disappointed he was with the level of service from the visit.
A few hours later, CPS was at the Cahills’ door.
Deric said the case worker told the Cahills she was there for a report of medical neglect and said that Rowan was severely dehydrated and needed to receive fluids at a hospital, something Deric says never happened. The CPS employee heard the Cahills’ side of the story and saw Rowan, then left the home less than an hour later.
Deric went back to the urgent care to collect the exit paperwork they didn’t get before leaving, and dehydration was listed on it. Deric asked to speak to the doctor, skeptical of her ability to determine Rowan was dehydrated after such a brief examination, and to ask why she didn’t mention dehydration to them. Someone at the urgent care called police, who responded and spoke to Deric. The doctor declined to speak to Deric, and he left.
Soon after, the Cahills took Rowan to another urgent care center for a second opinion. There, the doctor asked more questions and conducted a more thorough and extensive examination of Rowan. She ultimately told them Rowan’s fever was likely caused by a virus, and to give him another three days before seeking further testing or antibiotics. Rowan’s fever broke later that evening and he fully recovered.
“The provider at the Children’s Health PM Urgent Care facility knowingly made a false report to CPS in retaliation for my poor reviews of her service,” Deric said in a statement. “Her flagrant abuse of power demonstrates this is not the first time she has done this, nor will it be the last and she needs to be removed from the medical community immediately.”
Children’s Health PM Urgent Care declined to comment on the situation.
Deric, who has a large social media following, has posted several videos describing what happened and responding to comments. The first video has more than 2 million views on TikTok, and in another video, he showed the contrasting assessments by both urgent care doctors, accusing the first one of lying several times.
And right now, he’s still waiting to hear an update from CPS. Deric said Friday that he has filed a report to the state medical board and the Texas Attorney General’s office for consumer affairs.
“We’re just in standby mode now,” he said. “I’m trying to tastefully advocate for what’s going on, but I feel behind the 8-ball while waiting on the all clear from CPS.”
