RICHMOND, Va. — Gov. Abigail Spanberger has signed legislation that will enhance penalties for failure to report suspected child abuse or neglect at a hospital.
The action came after a CBS 6 investigation revealed hospital staff at Henrico Doctors' Hospital failed to report non-accidental fractures in multiple babies to CPS within 24 hours.
Delegate Delores McQuinn introduced the bill in direct response to concerns raised during Henrico County's investigation into a nurse who broke the bones of babies in Henrico Doctors' Hospital's NICU.
The bill signing came as the several of the babies injured in the NICU — now toddlers — were present for the occasion, meeting the governor for high fives.
Under current law, a first offense for failure to report carries a $500 fine, and subsequent failures could result in a $1,000 fine. The new law makes failure to report suspected child abuse at a hospital a Class 1 misdemeanor on the first offense, punishable by up to one year in jail. A second offense becomes a Class 6 felony, punishable by up to five years in jail.
"Accountability is what we are expecting," McQuinn said.
Henrico Commonwealth's Attorney Shannon Taylor advocated for the bill after finding that the hospital failed to contact Child Protective Services on multiple occasions in 2023.
The hospital first discovered a baby with a non-accidental fracture on Aug. 5, 2023, but did not contact CPS. A second baby with a non-accidental fracture was found on Aug. 16, 2023 — and again, the hospital did not contact CPS. On Sept. 3, 2023, two more babies were found with non-accidental fractures, and still nobody from the hospital contacted CPS about the broken bones.
A heavily redacted DSS report, exclusively reported on by CBS 6's Melissa Hipolit, showed a NICU doctor told detectives she had asked her medical director if they should call CPS about one of the babies' injuries. She said he told her it would be taken to leadership and looked into by the NICU nursing director and the hospital's chief medical officer.
Watch: NICU doctor sounded alarm about babies with broken bones. Why didn’t hospital call CPS right away?
By Sept. 11, 2023, the Chief Medical Officer had participated in a Zoom meeting with a fourth radiologist. That radiologist told police he reviewed all the images of the injured babies and said he had never experienced anything like it in his 25 years. Still, nobody called CPS — until hospital CEO Ryan Jensen and Vice President of Quality Denise Weisberg called CPS on Sept. 21, 2023.
Taylor opted not to press charges against anyone for failure to report the suspected abuse, but said current law is weak — and that is why she pushed for change.
"Melissa, to be here in this moment, to know that there's — there's one small, you know, shiny light from what everybody recognizes was an absolutely terrible traumatic event...I can't put into words because it is one of the greatest honors of my life to be here today, to watch Governor Spanberger sign that bill," Taylor said.
John Moses, whose son was injured in the NICU, said the moment carries meaning beyond the families directly affected.
"It's a terrible situation that the kids went through, but without them, then there wouldn't be any changes being made, because, as the system was, nobody saw it as broken at the time, so now it's kind of brought it to light," Moses said.
Moses said the stakes are too high for anything less than the highest standard of care.
"You gotta take care of the little ones really. I mean, the little kids are defenseless, like they can't do things for themselves. So realistically, in my opinion, you gotta be held to a higher standard," Moses said.
Erin Strotman, the former NICU nurse found guilty of hurting the babies, will be sentenced June 5. She is facing up to three years behind bars.
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