The Texas Board of Nursing suspended the registered nurse license of Mary Liz Eastland, the co-director and medical officer of Camp Mystic, on Wednesday, concluding that she abandoned her duty to protect children during the catastrophic July 4, 2025, flood. In a scathing disciplinary order signed by executive director Kristin Benton, the board found that Eastland, a registered nurse, heard emergency radio calls from counselors in the low-lying cabins where floodwaters were rising in the predawn darkness but never attempted to reach the area or render medical aid. Her inaction, the order said, “fell below the standards of nursing practice and endangered the lives of campers and staff.”
The suspension is among the first formal state sanctions against a member of the Eastland family, which owns and operates the all-girls Christian summer camp in the Texas Hill Country. The camp announced last month that it would not reopen for the 2026 season after sustained outrage from the parents of the victims.
According to the 14-page order, Eastland was in a cabin on higher ground when she heard radio transmissions about the flooding. She later told investigators that she did not think she could help because the water was too high. But the board emphasized that her registered nurse license imposed a special duty to respond to an emergency involving children in her care. The order faulted her for failing to go to the flooded site, failing to organize a medical response, and failing to use her training to assess or assist victims.
Eastland’s attorney, Joshua Fiveson, criticized the board’s action as premature and unfair. “This is scapegoating,” Fiveson said in a statement. “Mary Liz was not in a position to help anyone in the flood, and the board’s order ignores the reality of what happened that night.” He accused the board of rushing to judgment before the full legal and regulatory process has played out.
The suspension is effective immediately. Eastland has 30 days to request a hearing before the State Office of Administrative Hearings, which could result in a final order that reinstates or revokes her license. The board’s preliminary order noted that the suspension will remain in place pending the outcome of any hearing.
The July 4 flood killed 25 girls and two teenage counselors after heavy rains sent a wall of water through the camp’s riverfront cabins. Richard Eastland, the camp’s owner and Mary Liz Eastland’s father-in-law, also died in the disaster. The tragedy prompted multiple state investigations, lawsuits from victims’ families, and new safety regulations for youth camps across Texas — including a controversial fiber-optic connectivity rule that the state later rescinded under industry pressure.
The nursing board’s action is the most direct individual sanction yet against a camp leader. Earlier actions had focused on the camp’s operating license and safety plan compliance. The board made clear that it viewed Eastland’s status as a licensed health care professional as the critical factor, concluding that her failure to act was not merely a personal or managerial lapse but a violation of the professional obligations she assumed when she accepted her nursing license.