Mary Liz Eastland, the registered nurse who served as Camp Mystic’s medical officer, has had her Texas nursing license suspended after the Texas Board of Nursing said she failed to help evacuate children during the camp’s deadly July 4 floods along the Guadalupe River.
In a suspension order signed Tuesday and described by the board as one of the first state actions involving a family member in the ownership and operation of the all-girls Christian camp, the Texas Board of Nursing accused Eastland of not taking steps to reach children and staff as the flooding worsened. The order says keeping her licensed status in place would pose a continuing and imminent threat to public welfare.
The floods killed 25 girls and two teenage counselors. The order faulted Eastland for what it characterized as inaction during the emergency, saying she evacuated herself and her children to higher ground without providing assistance or direction to other campers and staff as the site began to flood.
Camp Mystic’s role and safety planning have come under renewed scrutiny since the disaster. Last month, the camp canceled plans to reopen this summer after backlash from parents of the victims, and the renewed attention has continued in the months since the flood. MSI previously reported that Camp Mystic would not reopen this summer after all after a decision driven by parental outrage and scrutiny.
The board identified Eastland as a key medical presence at the camp and pointed to her prior acknowledgments in court. According to the order and reporting, Eastland had acknowledged she never tried to reach children and staff in the low-lying area of the camp as the predawn flooding along the Guadalupe River worsened.
Eastland had also said she was not able to get to campers closest to the river as waters rose. At legislative hearings last month, she described how water poured into a house and broke a window to help her escape, and she also described steps after reaching higher ground, including gathering survivors for a head count and checking names against cabin rosters.
Eastland came under questioning at the hearings about why, as the camp’s chief medical officer, she did not try to call or alert other medical staff to get to the campers before disaster struck. She responded, “Maybe so,” according to reporting.
In an assertion of intent to fight the suspension, Eastland’s attorney, Joshua Fiveson, rejected the board’s findings. Fiveson said the board suspended Eastland’s license with less than a day’s notice of a hearing and without taking testimony or conducting a full investigation.
The suspension order said board executive director Kristin Benton signed off on the action, and it gave a timeline for next steps. The board said it would issue a final decision on Eastland’s license within two months.