Newborn babies at a hospital have been suffering mysterious injuries. A nurse now faces abuse charges

(CNN) — Dominique Hackey was waiting to cradle his preemie son for the first time when a nurse delivered devastating news: The newborn’s left leg was fractured. In an instant, Hackey’s world shattered.

His wife, Tori Hackey, had just been discharged after giving birth to fraternal twins, Micah and Noah. The boys, born in September 2023 at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, are the couple’s first children.

Because they were born at 28 weeks and weighed only about two and three pounds, respectively, the twins had remained in the neonatal intensive care unit — with Micah barely hanging on, Hackey said. And now, seven days after birth, the healthier twin’s leg was bruised and broken, he said.

“I was confused and heartbroken,” he said. “I’m a first-time parent. I have no background in the medical field. You’re telling me my baby has a fracture? How did it happen? They had been scanned before, and they’d have said something if anything had popped up (at that time).”

Out of fear he would be blamed for the injury, the 33-year-old Hackey said he turned down the offer to hold his son that day.

More than a year later, Hackey and other parents may now be closer to understanding what happened at the hospital, which has reported a series of mysterious injuries to newborns over the past several years.

Police last week arrested a former nurse at the hospital, Erin Elizabeth Ann Strotman, and charged her with malicious wounding and felony child abuse in a November 2024 incident involving another newborn.

Investigators are now looking into a total of seven potential abuse cases at the hospital: three in 2024 and four in 2023, including Noah’s, said Shannon Taylor, the commonwealth’s attorney for Henrico County.

In a statement last week, Henrico Doctors’ Hospital said it was “shocked and saddened” by the nurse’s arrest and is assisting Henrico police in their investigation.

“At this time, we are not admitting new patients to our NICU,” the hospital added. “For babies needing NICU care, we will assess them, stabilize, and facilitate a transfer to an appropriate facility, once available.”

At Strotman’s arraignment Friday, Hackey broke down.

“I could not stop the tears from flowing. I have a lot of guilt. A lot of regret. And a lot of anger that the hospital let it get this far, that we had all these parents whose children were affected,” he told CNN. “My son was one of her first victims. My son’s first emotion was pain. And as a father, that breaks me.”

It’s unclear whether Strotman, 26, issued a plea at her arraignment. Her attorney, Scott Cardani, declined to comment when reached by CNN.

Police are reviewing hundreds of hours of hospital surveillance footage

Henrico County police investigators said they are scouring hundreds of hours of surveillance footage from the hospital’s NICU to determine what happened to the seven newborns.

“The investigation is ongoing and there could be more babies identified,” Taylor told CNN.

The incident added to an already stressful pregnancy and delivery after two previous miscarriages, Hackey said. The couple chose to have their babies at the hospital because they believed it had the resources to save their children, he said.

At one point, he said, they were not sure Micah would survive due to his health issues, including low amniotic fluid before he was born.

But Noah appeared to be thriving, and the family was hopeful.

Not long after Hackey left the hospital, he called his mother, who’s a director of nursing at a different hospital. She was stunned, he said. The hospital had suggested that Noah’s left tibia – the shinbone between the knee and the ankle – may have been fractured while a nurse was administering an injection, he said.

His mother sat the couple down and showed them how nurses administer shots to preemies to highlight the unlikelihood of broken bones. Hackey’s mother then called Child Protection Services on their behalf and reported the case, he said.

The hospital launched an investigation but closed it weeks later after concluding the fracture was likely the result of the injection, he says. In January 2024, Henrico County police reached out to Hackey’s family and notified them that the case was closed, he said.

A police spokesperson declined to comment, saying they cannot provide specifics due to the ongoing investigation.

“We understand the feelings and emotions this investigation has generated for our community members and beyond,” said Eric D. English, chief of Henrico police, in a statement. “We kindly request patience as our detectives work to investigate every piece of evidence in connection to these cases.”

After Strotman’s arrest the hospital issued a statement Friday describing her as “a former employee” and saying it will continue to assist law enforcement in their ongoing investigation.

“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,” the hospital said.

“For more than 30 years, the NICU at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital has provided necessary and life-saving care to babies in central Virginia and we remain focused on ensuring the availability of that care in our community.”

The hospital referred all media questions to law enforcement.

The injured infants all are boys

For months, Hackney said, there was silence.

In September this year, Child Protective Services sent him a letter informing him its investigation revealed that Noah was the victim of abuse at the hospital.

“A review of the facts shows … a preponderance of the evidence that child abuse/neglect occurred,” said the letter, which he shared with CNN.

Last month, Hackey said he was surprised to see a news article about prematurely born babies injured at the Richmond hospital. One newborn suffered numerous injuries on different months.

“To say that we’re blessed that our son only sustained one fracture is a crazy sentence,” he said.

Hackey said the victims included another boy who was a twin, like Noah.

In a statement Tuesday, Henrico police refuted theories shared on social media that all the infants targeted were Black.

“The preliminary investigation indicates this information is not factual,” police said. Hackey agrees.

“The children were different races, and there were twins and singletons,” he said. “There was no real methodology there that we can put together. The only thing they have in common is that they are all boys.”

Parents recall a nurse who barely stood out
The Hackey twins are now 16 months old and hitting their developmental milestones. Their father said Noah is rambunctious while Micah is more mellow, introverted and observant. He glances at Noah’s antics between watching YouTube educator Ms. Rachel and munching on peanut butter puffs, his father said.

“Noah is certainly walking, climbing. We’re going to be in trouble when he learns how to jump. But he’s an adventurous, curious little boy,” Hackey said. “He had a little physical therapy once he got out of the hospital. But other than that, he’s perfect.”

The Hackeys are slowly learning more details about what happened to Noah and the other children.

After speaking with several families whose children were allegedly abused in 2023, Hackey said he’s learned his son was the third of the four victims identified that year. One incident occurred in July, another one in August and two in September, including Noah’s, he said.

The former nurse arrested is not a stranger to the families, Hackey said, adding that he remembers her mostly because of her hairstyle – she wore bangs. He added that he didn’t notice anything unusual about her at the time, and neither did the other families he’s spoken to.

“When I saw her face, I was completely shocked because I don’t really remember having any conversations with her,” he said.

On the day Strotman was arraigned, some of the families of the alleged victims met for the first time at the courthouse, where they shared tears and hugs. Hackey said they’re working on connecting the dots and trying to heal.

“We’ve found that it’s easier to heal together than to try to go through all this individually, especially because there are still a lot of missing pieces and we just kind of have to piece it together ourselves,” he said.

If found guilty, Strotman faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for the felony child abuse charge and up to 20 years for the malicious wounding charge, said Taylor, the Henrico County’s commonwealth’s attorney.

Strotman has so far been formally charged in just one baby’s case as investigations continue in the other cases.

Hackey said the babies’ parents were told that investigators have found surveillance footage of the November 2024 incident for which Strotman was arrested and are combing through the videos for others.

Strotman is being held without bail. Her next court appearance is scheduled for March 24.

“I want to see her go to prison for the rest of her life. That’s the least she deserves,” Hackey said.