(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
The Washington Post
The Virginia hospital first noticed newborns were suffering mysterious injuries in the summer of 2023. Then, roughly a month ago, three babies in the neonatal intensive care unit experienced "unexplainable fractures,” according to a statement from the Henrico Doctors' Hospital.
The hospital grew so concerned that last week, itannounced it would stop admitting babies into the NICU until they discovered what was breaking their bones.
Now, a registered nurse has been arrested and charged with malicious wounding and felony child abuse.
Henrico County Police announced Friday that Erin Elizabeth Ann Strotman, 26, was arrested in connection with an incident that occurred in November. Police said in a news release that they have reopened all of the cases reporting mysteriously injured babies at the hospital from 2023 and 2024.
Officers are combing through hundreds of hours of surveillance footage from the hospital, according to the release, trying to piece together what happened to at least seven babies.
"We are committed to protecting our residents, particularly our youngest and most vulnerable,” the news release read.
Families of three of the injured children involved in the ongoing investigation attended her arraignment Friday, ABC 8News reported. They did not respond to phone calls from The Washington Post before publication. A lawyer listed in court documents for Strotman, Scott Cardani, did not immediately response to requests for comment Saturday.
Before the arrest, hospital leadership enhanced its security measures in a fervent effort to find out what was happening to the most vulnerable babies in their care.
"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.
In late December, Henrico Doctors' Hospital posted an update to its website announcing increased safety training programs for NICU caregivers, additional head-to-toe examinations of each NICU baby, new training to help health care providers identify and report neglect or abuse, and two new security systems including live-streaming technology that allows parents to watch their babies in the NICU at all times. The hospital also implemented an observer system to ensure caregivers were never alone with a baby.
"While fractures occasionally happen with pre-term babies since they lack full fetal bone development, we are actively working to determine how these fractures occurred,” the statement read.
The hospital commented on the arrest of its former employee Friday, saying in a statement that they will continue not to admit new babies into the NICU as they cooperate with law enforcement to figure out what happened.
"We are both shocked and saddened by this development in the investigation and are focused on continuing to care for our patients and providing support to our colleagues who have been deeply and personally impacted by this investigation,” the hospital wrote in the statement. "We are grateful to those colleagues, who have dedicated their professional lives to the care and safety of our patients, as well as to law enforcement and the other agencies who have worked aggressively and tirelessly with us on this investigation.”
Strotman's next court date is scheduled for March 24.
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