Say What Now? Woman Arrested After Multiple Babies Suffer ‘Unexplainable Fractures’ at Same Virginia Hospital

A Virginia woman has been charged with malicious wounding and child abuse after an investigation into babies being found with “unexplainable fractures” at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Henrico Doctors’ Hospital announced in a Dec. 24, 2024 news release that it would not be “admitting any additional babies into our NICU at this time” after three babies were found with the fractures in late November/December.

The injuries were “similar to an incident involving four babies in the summer of 2023,” per the release.

On Friday, Jan. 3, Henrico County Police confirmed in a news release obtained by PEOPLE that Erin Elizabeth Ann Strotman, 26, of Chesterfield County, had been named as a suspect in the case.

“Ms. Strotman faces charges of malicious wounding and felony child abuse in connection to an incident that occurred in November 2024,” police said, per the release.

The investigation continued to note that police are “reviewing dozens of videos from inside the NICU. As previously mentioned, detectives are re-examining the 2023 and 2024 cases as part of this broader investigation.”

Police declined to confirm whether the suspect was an employee at the hospital when asked by PEOPLE.

“We appreciate the families’ and public’s patience as we work as thoroughly and expeditiously as possible to investigate every piece of evidence in connection to these cases,” Henrico Chief of Police, Eric D. English, said, per the release.

“I would also like to acknowledge the unwavering efforts of our detectives who continue to comb through hundreds of hours of footage and extend my sincere gratitude to Henrico’s Child Protective Services (Department of Social Services), the Henrico County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, Virginia State Police, the Virginia Department of Health and the Office of the Attorney General for their assistance in this matter,” the officer added.

Henrico Doctors’ Hospital didn’t immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE.

The hospital elaborated on the more recent fractures in a December news release, saying, “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.”

“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 release stated.

The hospital insisted it had “taken immediate steps to enhance safety measures” in the NICU, including safety training programs, additional head-to-toe examinations of each NICU baby, installing new security systems, live-streaming technology and more.

“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 hospital said in the release.

Noah Hackey was among the babies to suffer an injury in 2023, with his parents, Tori and Dominique, discovering he had a fractured tibia while in the hospital’s NICU in September of that year.

The couple received a letter from Henrico’s Department of Social Services, which stated that “following a [thorough] CPS investigation this agency has determined the disposition of this report to be founded level 1 for physical abuse of Noah by an employee by the Henrico Doctor’s Hospital NICU,” per local CBS-affiliated station WTVR.

However, the employee wasn’t identified at the time.

Noah’s father, Dominique, told the outlet, “We are anxiously waiting to hear that they were able to find the person liable for this.”

via: People

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