Unbelievable, right?
Sadly, it’s real.
The Henrico County Commonwealth Attorney’s office has charged a former Henrico Doctors’ Hospital employee with malicious wounding and child abuse. The alleged perpetrator was arrested in the early morning hours of January 3rd.
Think about it: The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit is where the most fragile newborns are cared for. Many of these are infants you could hold in the palm of your hand. That anyone would intentionally harm these babies is a horror which can hardly be imagined.
A couple of weeks ago, a case was referred to us in which a NICU patient was found to have a broken leg. Child protective services had gotten involved. To say it struck us as an odd situation is an understatement. In over 40 years as a lawyer, I had never seen anything like that.
From the information we had initially, it seemed to be a one-off event. Then, the news broke that the authorities had reopened an investigation into a pattern of such injuries.
The hospital – a big one in the area – has temporarily shut down its NICU.
We are now representing other families, as well.
What happened here is beyond wrong. The future impact on these babies could be immense.
No amount of money will undo what has happened, but we are committed to doing what we can to get justice for these families.