By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-08 17:16:48 | Updated at 2025-01-09 08:19:39
15 hours ago
The details of how twisted nurse Erin Strotman broke the legs of babies in her care have been released in a shocking police report.
The nurse from Midlothian, Virginia, was caught on video breaking the thigh bone of one five-month-old boy in the neonatal intensive care unit of Henrico Doctors' Hospital in Richmond.
The child was also found to have a fractured right tibia and several broken ribs, the report noted.
Strotman, 26, took the boy – identified only as Y.H. – by the legs and then applied pressure to them, wrote Detective Megan Lynch.
'Ms. Stotman was observed to be placing her weight down on the legs of Y.H.' added Lynch.
'Ms. Strotman was observed then taking both legs and pushing them backwards to where Y.H.'s feet were at his head.
'Y.H. looked to be crying and in distress,' the detective wrote, noting that the boy's left leg moved normally but the right did not..
Strotman has been charged with malicious wounding and felony child abuse after being accused of harming seven newborn babies in her care at the hospital.
Shocking court documents revealed nurse Erin Elizabeth Strotman, 26, was caught on camera placing her weight on the legs of a premature baby - which resulted in a broken left femur
Social services told parents Dominique and Tori Hackey that they determined an NICU employee at the hospital caused their son Noah's fracture
Noah was one of seven babies who suffered inexplicable injuries at Henrico Doctors' Hospital in Richmond, Virginia from 2023 to 2024
She has only been charged in relation to one child so far, but remains in jail after bail was refused by a judge.
The video was made on November 10 after Strotman had returned to work after she and three colleagues had been suspended on full pay for almost a year after four boys received unexplained leg fractures.
They were allowed to return after investigations failed to find who was responsible for the injuries.
Details of how Strotman allegedly injured the boy comes after sources close to the hospital told DailyMail.com that she was 'racist' and initially targeted only black children.
One source told DailyMail.com: 'The majority of the babies were black babies, when she came back when they noticed the pattern, she tried to throw them off by targeting a white baby and a girl baby.
The source said Strotman was a weak student during her time in nursing school.
'She wasn't the strongest in the class, she was literally one of the slowest. People are saying she's a white supremacist but that's a bit of a stretch.
'I definitely felt like she was racist, she was deeply southern rooted,' they explained.
The documents showed that after Strotman placed her weight on his legs, the baby was 'crying and in distress' as she 'moved the left leg back and forth' - the footage allegedly showed the left leg moved normally, but the right did not
Coworkers and former classmates of Strotman told DailyMail.com they suspected she was 'racist' and they were 'not surprised that it was her'
The incidents took place in the NICU unit at Henrico Doctors' Hospital. They later installed 'angel cameras' which court documents alleged caught Strotman carrying out the heinous act
'I was surprised at what she did, but I'm not surprised that it was her. If anyone was to do something crazy, she would have been at the top of the list.'
The hospital announced on Christmas Eve that it would not be 'admitting any additional babies into our NICU at this time' after three babies were found with the fractures in late November and December.
While the nurses were suspended the hospital installed 'angel cameras' which allowed constant monitoring of the premature babies. Staff claimed that is how Strotman was caught.
Officials confirmed that the injuries discovered this year were 'similar to an incident involving four babies in the summer of 2023', with Henrico County Police reviewing 'dozens of videos' from inside the unit.
Detectives are re-examining the 2023 and 2024 cases as part of the broader investigation.
Staff at the hospital are horrified that Strotman was allowed back to work, one nurse told DailyMail.com: 'Virginia is a right to work state, so you don't have to have a reason to fire someone.
'If you even suspected these people were in the midst of harming babies you can terminate them,' the nurse, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added.
'But why would you let them come back and harm even more babies? They shouldn't have allowed her to come back.
The nurse said some fractures are common in childbirth.
'Shoulders and clavicles, when they're coming out of the birth canal, break all the time, but legs never happen,' they explained.
Strotman is seen with her family after her 2019 graduation from nursing school. They refused to comment on her arrest, with one telling DailyMail.com 'I don't want to talk about that'
Noah has fully recovered. His father Dominique was present for Strotman's arraignment on Friday along with three of the other families who had babies that were allegedly abused at the NICU
'It would have to be a whole lot of coincidences for that fracture to be the same way it was in all those babies.
'It would be like trying to snap a pencil. You have to put some force behind it. It's highly unlikely unless you accidentally drop one of them to snap their lower leg, below the knee, and that's what was being broken.'
Despite the injuries, the babies are reportedly all doing well and recovering after being moved to different hospitals.
Those who trained and worked with Strotman told DailyMail.com they were shocked that she had been placed on the specialist unit in the first place.
One described her as being 'weird' and always 'in the background' during their training at ECPI University in Richmond.
Strotman's arrest came after Dominique and Tori Hackey spoke out after Virginia Child Services informed them that their newborn baby Noah had been abused by an employee at the NICU when he suffered a fractured leg following his premature birth.
Dominique was present at Strotman's arraignment on Friday, along with three of the other families who had babies that were allegedly abused at the NICU.
