Law enforcement officials in Virginia are currently working to find out how seven babies born at a Virginia hospital in 2023 and 2024 ended up with “unexplained fractures” during their stays in the NICU.
The Henrico Doctors’ Hospital published a release on Dec. 24 stating that in late November and December, staffers discovered three babies in the hospital’s NICU unit who had unexplainable fractures. The hospital said the discovery resembles an incident last year in which three babies were also found with fractures.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we are not admitting any additional babies into our NICU at this time,” the hospital said in a statement. “While fractures occasionally happen with pre-term babies since they lack full fetal bone development, we are actively working to determine how these fractures occurred.”
A Henrico County police spokesperson told WTVR that investigations into the 2023 cases were previously closed, but could not share any details about why. Now, those cases are being integrated into a fresh probe to learn how the injuries of the 2024 babies occurred.
Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor said her office is preparing to investigate the newborns’ cases to learn whether the injuries were a result of criminal conduct, criminal negligence, or procedural errors at the hospital.
“The 2023 babies are now a part of the 2024 investigation,” Taylor said. “We are bringing information from 2023 to be a part of the current investigation.”
One of those 2023 babies was Noah Hackey — the son of Dominique and Tori Hackey.
Noah and his twin brother Micah were born last summer at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital. Both boys were born at 28 weeks and were admitted to the NICU where Noah’s health and overall vitality progressed quickly.
Then, on Sept. 5, Noah’s parents learned something happened.
“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, so we are going to splint it for the next two weeks, and then she was like, ‘Do you want to hold him?’” Dominique said to WTVR.
The couple said no.
“In my mind I’m like, I don’t want them to turn it around on us and say we broke his leg or anything like that so I was like no, we don’t want to hold him, we are just going to process this,” Dominique explained.
The new father showed his mother, a nurse, an X-ray of Noah’s injury showing that the newborn’s tibia was fractured. Hospital leadership suggested early on that the injury might have been accidental, but Dominique’s mother didn’t buy it.
“She said, ‘That is not right. I’ve worked in multiple NICUs, and there has never ever been a fracture,’” he explained.
His mother contacted Child Protective Services to file a report about her grandson’s injury.
In January 2024, a prosecutor and police reached out to the Hackeys after launching an investigation into the incident.
Months later, in September, the couple received a letter from Henrico’s Department of Social Services notifying them that Noah’s injury was caused by an employee.
The letter states that “through CPS investigation, this agency has determined the disposition of this report to be founded level 1 for physical abuse of Noah by an employee by the Henrico Doctor’s Hospital NICU.”
Level one is the most serious level of child abuse or neglect in Virginia.
“It was intentional, it was child abuse, it was the most severe level that it can be,” Dominique remarked. “That definitely opened our eyes to it because nobody had said that before. Nobody said this was child abuse, this was intentional. You do anything to protect them, you vow that. It’s my baby boy. I feel like I’ve done nothing to protect him and that hurts. It pisses me off.”
The Hackeys didn’t find out until October of this year that other babies who were also admitted to the NICU around the same time as their son suffered similar injuries. Then they learned about the three newborns discovered with unexplained injuries in November and December.
“We couldn’t believe it, instant anger, instant tears, because it’s not supposed to happen again, it’s not supposed to happen in the first place,” Dominique said.
Dominique reported that Noah made a full recovery from the injury and he and his brother are healthy and thriving at the family’s home in Chesterfield.
Officials with the hospital said that they reviewed surveillance footage and haven’t found any misconduct or accidental actions so far that could have caused the fractures.
Following the most recent injuries, the hospital has implemented new measures including an observer system where each provider in the NICU is accompanied by another clinician when they are present in a baby’s room to help ensure all protocols are followed.
A hospital spokesperson said they are also working closely with families whose newborns are still in the NICU.
A joint investigation involving the Henrico Police, Virginia State Police, and the Attorney General’s Office is currently underway. No arrests have been made so far.
