The Virginia Board of Nursing has suspended the license of a 26-year-old nurse accused of abusing and maliciously wounding patients for years in a hospital’s neonatal ICU, according to a May 2 order of suspension.
In late 2024, HCA Healthcare’s Henrico Doctors’ Hospital paused NICU admissions because of what it called “unexplainable fractures” on three infants. After police arrested and charged Erin Strotman, RN, a former employee at the Richmond, Va.-based facility, the hospital updated its safety measures and reopened the unit in February 2025.
Since then, prosecutors have served Ms. Strotman with additional charges concerning five patients — one in 2022 and four in 2024. Four additional infants experienced harm in 2023, bringing the total to nine, but there are no current charges connected to those cases.
After discovering four NICU patients with unexplained bone fractures and other injuries in August and September 2023, the hospital found that Ms. Strotman was the only nurse with access to all four patients, according to formal allegations made by the Virginia nursing board.
On Sept. 12, 2023, the hospital placed Ms. Strotman on administrative leave for a year, during which no unexplained fractures occurred in the NICU. Upon her return, Ms. Strotman was alleged in several instances to have grabbed an infant’s legs and pressed them to their abdomens, according to the nursing board.
In an April 8 interview, Ms. Strotman rated her NICU nursing clinical skills as an “8” or “9” out of “10” and, after watching video footage recorded during her time at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital, claimed she was safe to practice nursing, the board said.