A Virginia NICU nurse has been arrested and charged with felony counts of malicious wounding and child abuse.
As WTVR reports, the arrest comes one week after the hospital announced it was temporarily stopping admissions to the neonatal intensive care unit. Three babies were found to have unexplained fractures in late November and December.
Erin Strotman, 26, was taken into custody Thursday and booked at Henrico Jail West early Friday morning. She faces one count of felony child neglect and one count of malicious wounding for an injury sustained by an infant on or about Nov. 10, 2024.
Families Speak Out
Of the three families present in court, two were of children who were injured in 2023 and one was injured in 2024, as WRIC reported.
Two out of the three families wished to remain anonymous, but shared details concerning the injuries their children sustained.
One mother said that, of her twins who received care in the NICU, one had passed away. When WRIC asked her if she believed her child’s passing was due in part to their stay in the NICU, she said, “I don’t know.”
Another woman shared with WRIC that her child had suffered 12 fractures while receiving care in the hospital’s NICU.
“It makes me sick, it truly makes me sick,” said Dominique Hackey, of Chesterfield County, whose son’s tibia was fractured while at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital. “This person’s mentally ill and — to do that to all those families … there’s no happiness that I can feel at this point.”
Hackey grew emotional when meeting other families in court Friday. Once he met the parents who shared that their son suffered 12 fractures, he was brought to tears.
“I couldn’t help but … just to break down for that father and that mother, because I felt how I felt when I learned that my son had a fracture — and that was helpless,” he said. “And to know that to that degree that there was nothing that father could do to protect his son … it’s horrifying.”