A former nurse was arrested for child abuse in connection to a horrifying incident that left three premature babies with “unexplainable fractures” at a Virginia hospital — which has since closed its neonatal intensive care unit, authorities said Friday.
Erin Elizabeth Ann Strotman, 26, was charged with malicious wounding and felony child abuse over the disturbing infant injuries at Hernia Doctors’ Hospital in Richmond last month, police said in a press release.
The premies were found with inexplicably broken bones in late November and early December, according to Henrico County Police.
The chilling violence comes after four babies — including a newborn with a fractured leg — were hurt in the same unit in the summer of 2023, police said.
Investigators are probing “dozens of videos from inside the NICU” and “detectives are re-examining the 2023 and 2024 cases as part of this broader investigation,” cops said in the press release.
“’The Henrico County Police Division is utilizing all available resources to ensure a thorough investigation into this matter,” the department said.
In December, Dominique and Tori Hackey spoke out about how they were heartbroken to discover their premature baby Noah suddenly couldn’t move his leg at the hospital in September 2023.
“It was kind of discolored. I told the doctor on staff, got some x-rays, and we determined he had a fracture to his leg, so we are going to splint it for the next two weeks, and then she was like do you want to hold him?” Dominique Hickey told WTVR.
“In my mind I’m like, I don’t want them to turn it around on us and say we broke his leg or anything like that so I was like, ‘No, we don’t want to hold him, we are just going to process this,’” he said.
The hospital is currently no longer accepting babies into the neonatal intensive care unit out of abundance of caution — and has taken steps to beef up security.
“In late November/December, we discovered that three babies in our Henrico Doctors’ Hospital NICU had unexplainable fractures, similar to an incident involving four babies in the summer of 2023,” the hospital said in a statement on Dec. 24.
“We initiated a thorough internal investigation, informed the families and notified the proper authorities and regulatory agencies and worked collaboratively with them on their investigations.”
A rep said the hospital is “shocked and saddened” by Strotman’s arrest, NBC News reported.
Strotman was a former employee of the hospital, according to the rep, who didn’t give her specific title.
Strotman has reportedly noted on social media she graduated as a registered nurse in 2019.
Details about the injuries the babies suffered weren’t immediately clear Friday.
