3 NICU babies found with ‘unexplainable’ fractures, officials say. Now, woman charged
Since 2023, at least seven premature babies at a Virginia hospital were found to have mysterious injuries, police said.
Now, a woman who worked at the hospital is accused of abusing babies that were being cared for in the NICU.
Erin Elizabeth Ann Strotman, 26 is charged with malicious wounding and felony child abuse in connection to a November incident at the Henrico Doctors’ Hospital in Richmond, Henrico County Police said in a Jan. 3 news release.
A spokesperson for HCA Healthcare told McClatchy News the woman was a former employee at the hospital.
“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 spokesperson said.
The hospital stopped admitting babies into the NICU after finding three babies with “unexplainable fractures,” officials said in a Dec. 24 statement on their website.
According to the statement, a similar incident, involving four babies, also happened at the hospital in 2023.
Fractures sometimes happen with pre-term babies due to a lack of full fetal bone development, officials said, adding that they are working to learn exactly how these fractures occurred.
“The safety of our NICU babies is our highest priority and we are actively working to pursue additional precautions to prevent any future incidents,” the statement said.
Hospital officials said extra safety measures were being implemented in the NICU, including additional safety training, head-to-toe examinations of each baby, new security systems and an observer system where providers are always accompanied by another clinician when present in a baby’s room.
In December, families involved in cases from 2023 were notified that those cases were being reopened as part of a “broader investigation,” police said in a Dec. 31 statement.
A motive has not been determined, and the investigation is ongoing, police said.
“The Henrico County Police Division is utilizing all available resources to ensure a thorough investigation into this matter. This involves reviewing dozens of videos from inside the NICU,” police said.
