HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — Henrico police have arrested a Henrico Doctors’ Hospital NICU nurse, charging the woman with felony counts of malicious wounding and child abuse. This comes one week after the hospital announced it was temporarily stopping admissions to the neonatal intensive care unit after three babies were found to have unexplained fractures in late November and December. Erin Strotman was taken into custody Thursday and booked at Henrico Jail West early Friday morning. Court records show the crimes she is accused of both took place on Nov. 10, 2024. The circumstances of the recent fractures are similar to incidents involving four different babies at the hospital in the summer of 2023, according to a statement from HCA, which runs Henrico Doctors’ Hospital. Among those babies was Noah Hackey, whose tibia was fractured while in the NICU at the hospital in September of 2023. We shared the Hackey family’s story last week , including a letter from a Child Protective Services Supervisor, that says CPS "founded level 1 for physical abuse of Noah by an employee by the Henrico Doctor’s Hospital NICU.” “They failed strictly on multiple levels with multiple different families, and they need to be held accountable as well because that shouldn’t have happened. If they were suspicious of some person enough to let them go they shouldn’t have brought them back. They failed simple as that,” Dominique Hackey said. However, CPS was not able to identify that employee. “When we look at what happened back in 2023, we can look at it from the standpoint of not just the individual culpability, but if there was a systems failure,” Taylor responded. “I think we would be remiss if we did not look at all aspects of how the system is working and how these families were impacted.” “So potentially there could be criminal charges beyond the person that committed the acts?” Hipolit asked. “Like any investigation we are going to make sure that we look at all facets of the investigation, and if there are individuals that need to be held accountable, and if we have the evidence to sustain that then we will pursue it,” Taylor replied. Taylor confirmed her office re-opened Noah’s case and others earlier this week . Strotman was placed on paid administrative leave in 2023 after the hospital conducted an internal investigation, according to Virginia Department of Social Services (DSS) records obtained exclusively by CBS 6. She was determined to be one of two staff persons “found to have had contact with all of the infants in the timeframe identified,” and unlike the other employee, Strotman was “new to the unit and had more direct care responsibilities with the NICU infants.” However, CPS and police said they could not determine who the abuser was at the time. CBS 6 asked HCA when Strotman's paid administrative leave ended, when she returned to work, and if she is still an employee of the hospital system. Strotman is a "former" employee of the hospital, according to a statement provided to CBS 6 by HCA. This is a developing story and will be updated as we learn more.
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