RICHMOND, Va. — Dominique Hackey and his wife received some startling news on Sept. 3, 2023, about one of their twin sons who was in the NICU at Henrico Doctors' Hospital.
"A nurse was standing over Noah swaddling him, looked back and said I noticed his left leg wasn't moving, it was kind of discolored, I told the doctor on staff, got some x-rays, and we determined he had a fracture to his leg,” Hackey said.
While Hackey’s mother, a longtime NICU nurse, felt the injury was suspicious, Hackey said hospital leadership suggested it was accidental.
"That's what they told us, that it could have been done because an injection was given and maybe they did it too hard and it caused the fracture,” Hackey said.
Watch: Investigation found hospital employee abused NICU baby in 2023: 'It pisses me off'
Three days later, hospital staff found another baby with bruises on both of his thighs. A subsequent x-ray showed a left radial buckle fracture.
According to a heavily redacted report from the Virginia Department of Social Services, a NICU doctor told a Henrico police investigator that she contacted the NICU’s medical and nursing directors about that infant’s injuries and placed an alert in the “risk system.”
She then shared the results with three different radiologists and the baby’s mother.
The radiologists told the investigator that they had told the NICU doctor this type of fracture raised suspicions for non-accidental trauma.
One of them said it was “not normal,” and that he had never seen this before with a child who had not yet left the hospital after birth.
Another radiologist said he reviewed images of three babies and said he had never seen anything like this in his career.
The NICU doctor told the detective she had asked her medical director if they should call Child Protective Services (CPS) about the injury, and she said he told her it would be taken to leadership and looked into by the NICU Nursing Director and the hospital’s Chief Medical Officer.
By Sept. 11, 2023, the Chief Medical Officer had participated in a Zoom meeting with a fourth radiologist.
That radiologist told police he reviewed all the images and said he had never experienced anything like this in his 25 years.
He said he thought that a pattern of abuse was going on, whether accidental or gross negligence.
In total, four babies in Henrico Doctors’ NICU were found with fractures between Aug. 5 and Sept. 18.
And yet, the medical director for the NICU told the HPD investigator that when the medical team spoke over the phone about the fractures “nobody in the conversation was convinced that these were intentional.”
At that time, he said he “still believes these occur in the normal real of care,” and said NICU babies are “medically fragile in a way that people don’t understand.”
Still, he said it does “bubble up a concern for safety in the NICU.”
None of the doctors or nurses the detective interviewed contacted CPS about the fractures, according to the report.
State code requires doctors and nurses to report suspected child abuse or neglect to social services within 24 hours.
The VDH survey from 2023 states a staff member from the hospital told VDH they self-reported to DSS on Sept. 20, 2023, which is one day prior to the Sept. 21 date in the DSS report.
It was not until Sept. 21, more than six weeks after the first baby was found with a fracture, that the hospital called CPS.
The state later cited the hospital for failing to report suspicion of child abuse within a timely manner.
Doctor Nasim Gorji, a neonatologist in the Boston area, said while she does not know the medical details of these cases, she said it’s important for people to understand that NICU babies are incredibly fragile.
“Babies that are born early are at risk for metabolic bone disease and demineralizaiton of their bones,” Gorji said. “It's not uncommon in the NICU, but I can't tell you that every baby who is born early has fractures. There are usually reasons why we are getting x rays and finding these things.”
Gorji also said she is not surprised the hospital or the doctors who reviewed the images and the babies did not call CPS right away.
“When you see a fracture, you see a fracture on an x ray but it doesn't necessarily give you the history that got there, so I can understand why people would want to be very certain and look at all the details of cases and the babies before contacting CPS because there are other reasons why babies can get fractures,” Gorji said.
When CPS began investigating, they learned the hospital’s lawyers had already done an internal probe.
That investigation determined that a nurse named Erin Strotman had contact with all the infants in the time frame identified.
The hospital placed her on paid administrative leave.
Watch: NICU nurse charged with child abuse, malicious wounding
About a year later, on Sept. 26, 2024, CPS sent a letter to families stating the infants had been abused, but found there was not sufficient evidence to assert Strotman was responsible.
Henrico Police and the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office closed the case.
The hospital brought Strotman back to work that very month, according to prosecutors.
Several weeks later, more babies began to suffer mysterious broken bones in the NICU.
“This is an institution that is supposed to protect the most innocent human beings, and they didn’t, and for the life of me I can’t understand why,” Hackey said.
The hospital said they found three babies with fractures in November and December 2024 and reported it to the proper authorities.
The Virginia Department of Health suggested Henrico Doctors’ stop new admissions to the NICU, which they did on Christmas Eve.
On Jan. 2, Strotman was charged with abusing one of those babies.
The criminial complaint states video evidence from Nov. 10 shows Strotman applying pressure to the then five-month-old infant’s legs placing her weight down on the legs of the baby, and then taking both legs and pushing them backwards to where the baby’s feet were at his head.
The child looked to be crying and in distress, according to the complaint.
We requested an interview with leadership at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital, which is owned by HCA. A spokesperson said, “this is an ongoing investigation, and we are not giving interviews at this time.”
The hospital did inform the VDH that a corrective action plan implemented after the 2023 cases included new safety training and two new security systems, including video cameras being put in every NICU room.
In court Wedneday, prosecutor Allison Martin said the county’s 2023 investigation was “unfortunately delayed” and encountered “problems" because the hospital did not report the fractures to CPS until Sept. 21, 2023.
Watch: Text messages sent by Virginia NICU nurse charged with abusing baby revealed in court
“Prior to video existing people were charged with crimes, they were charged with malicious wounding, so do you feel like the county did everything they possibly could to investigate in 2023 and try to find evidence of who the perpetrator was at that time?” CBS 6 reporter Melissa Hipolit asked Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor.
"I don't want to comment specifically on the findings from 2023, or how it came to be that agencies came to certain findings in 2023. What is important for the public to know is that everything that happened in 2023 is in fact in part of an ongoing investigation today,” Taylor responded.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
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