A Virginia woman was charged with child abuse on Thursday over her connection to mysterious injuries that appeared on a newborn in a neonatal intensive care unit in a hospital where she worked as a nurse, officials said.
The woman, Erin Elizabeth Ann Strotman, 26, of Chesterfield County, Va., was charged with malicious wounding and felony child abuse, according to court records and the Henrico County Police Division.
The arrest came after the police began investigating three babies that were discovered with “unexplained fractures” in the newborn care unit of Henrico Doctors’ Hospital in Richmond in late November and December, the hospital said in a statement on Friday. The hospital said it provided footage to the authorities to help in their investigation.
If found guilty, Ms. Strotman faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for the felony child neglect charge and 20 years for the malicious wounding charge, Shannon Taylor, the Henrico County’s commonwealth’s attorney, said in a statement.
Ms. Strotman is being held without bond in Henrico County Regional Jail West. Her lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Saturday.
The hospital, which in the statement described Ms. Strotman as a former employee, declined to say when Ms. Strotman began working there. She received her nursing license in May 2019, and her certification is active, according to the Virginia Department of Health Professions.
Though three babies were recently discovered with fractures, Ms. Strotman was only charged in connection to injuries to a single victim, Ms. Taylor said.
The abuse, which took place on or before Nov. 11, 2024, echoes cases from 2023, when four babies were discovered with mysterious injuries at the same hospital, Ms. Taylor said.
Though Ms. Taylor said Ms. Strotman’s arrest was only for her connection to the single case, the Henrico County Police Division said that “detectives are re-examining the 2023 and 2024 cases as part of this broader investigation.”
The Henrico County Police Division and Ms. Taylor declined to provide specifics about the babies’ injuries.
Ms. Taylor said in the statement that her “thoughts are with the families” of those injured “who suffered harm while in a facility designed to provide comfort and care.”
The hospital, which says it delivers about 4,500 babies a year, said it had stopped accepting new patients to its neonatal intensive care unit and did not provide further information about when it would accept new patients to the unit again.
“We have been assisting law enforcement in their ongoing investigation and will continue to do so,” the hospital said. It added that it was “both shocked and saddened by this development in the investigation.”
