John Jefferson
Inset: Erin Strotman (Henrico County Jail). Background: Henrico Doctors’ Hospital (Google Maps).
Text messages obtained by prosecutors provided insight into the mental health of a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurse at a Virginia hospital accused of abusing at least one premature baby.
Erin Elizabeth Ann Strotman, 26, stands accused of malicious wounding and felony child abuse in connection to an incident that occurred in November last year at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital in Richmond. Videos allegedly showed Stroman applying pleasure on a 5-month-old baby boy’s legs to the point where his feet reached his head.
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During a bond hearing on Wednesday morning, prosecutors entered some of Strotman’s text messages into the record, according to a courtroom report from Richmond CBS affiliate WTVR. In a text message from October 2023, she reportedly said she had been pacing and felt like she took “cocaine again” even though she hadn’t. She also said she felt like she had a personality disorder.
“I feel manic,” she wrote. “It takes everything in me not to start s—.”
The day before her arrest she reportedly texted she was “five seconds away from checking myself into crisis.”
The judge once again declined to give Strotman a bond and she remains in jail.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Strotman’s alleged abuse may go beyond just one incident. According to the hospital, three babies suffered “unexplained fractures” in November 2024. Four other babies suffered similar injuries in the summer of 2023, the hospital said.
Investigators with the Henrico County Police Division reviewed dozens of videos from inside the NICU and were able to point the finger at Strotman. Detectives continue to comb through evidence, including “hundreds of hours of footage” in hopes of bringing justice to each baby who suffered abuse.
“We appreciate the families’ and public’s patience as we work as thoroughly and expeditiously as possible to investigate every piece of evidence in connection to these cases,” Henrico Police Chief Eric D. English said in a statement.
The hospital in a press release described Strotman as a “former employee.” As a precaution, the hospital shut down its NICU while the investigation proceeded.
“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 by this investigation,” the statement said. “We are grateful to those colleagues, who have dedicated their professional lives to the care and safety of our patients, as well as to law enforcement and the other agencies who have worked aggressively and tirelessly with us on this investigation.”
One of the babies allegedly abused in the summer of 2023 was Noah Hackey, who suffered a broken tibia. His father Dominque Hackey explained to WTVR that Noah and his twin Micah were born prematurely at the hospital in August 2023 and spent time together in the NICU.
When Noah was about two weeks old they noticed some discoloration in his left leg. An X-ray unveiled a fracture of the tibia. The family filed a report with Child Protective Services, which determined an employee was responsible for breaking the boy’s leg, but not which employee it was.
Hackey was flabbergasted that his son wasn’t the only one allegedly abused.
“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,” he told WTVR. “If they were suspicious of some person enough to let them go they shouldn’t have brought them back. They failed, simple as that.”
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