Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / "ANGEL OF PAIN" 7 NEWBORNS SUFFER EXCRUCIATING BROKEN BONES IN HOSPITAL

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"ANGEL OF PAIN" 7 NEWBORNS SUFFER EXCRUCIATING BROKEN BONES IN HOSPITAL · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:00
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, a so called angel of
0:09
Speaker 1: pain stalking the halls of the nick You the.
0:14
Speaker 2: Newborn I see You Unit.
0:17
Speaker 1: That's the suspicion after seven newborns, just tiny baby infants
0:23
Speaker 1: suffer unexplained broken.
0:26
Speaker 2: Bones while in the hospital.
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Speaker 1: Joining us tonight the father of two of those babies,
0:35
Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Grace.
0:36
Speaker 2: This is crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
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Speaker 3: Nick You nightmare infants with broken bones? What happened to
0:43
Speaker 3: these premi babies?
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Speaker 2: Premature babies?
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Speaker 1: I know I had two of them, and they survived
0:51
Speaker 1: only because of the nurses and doctors in the nick
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Speaker 1: You They would have died if it had not been
0:59
Speaker 1: for the North Side Hospital nick You unit after an
1:02
Speaker 1: emergency delivery. Sadly that was not the case with many
1:08
Speaker 1: many other parents that we particular hospital who would take
1:14
Speaker 1: a baby's bones, an infant, a newborn, and break and
1:19
Speaker 1: fracture their bones as they lie there helpless. First of all,
1:26
Speaker 1: take a listen to this.
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Speaker 4: It is a burden and a huge responsibility and also
1:33
Speaker 4: a privilege to be able to care for these children
1:36
Speaker 4: at their most vulnerable states, and these families in their
1:39
Speaker 4: most vulnerable states, many many of them have gone through
1:43
Speaker 4: all kinds of toil and trouble just trying to get pregnant,
1:47
Speaker 4: and then to deliver early or to have complications during delivery.
1:51
Speaker 4: It's just heart wrenching for these families to not be
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Speaker 4: able to go through a natural birth process and take
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Speaker 4: your child home with you believe them in the care
2:01
Speaker 4: of others who you really don't know. You have to
2:03
Speaker 4: trust them, you do.
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Speaker 1: You have to trust them, and sadly that trust was
2:08
Speaker 1: misplaced in the case of at least seven Kneeborns that
2:13
Speaker 1: we know. If think about it, a kneeborn baby premature,
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Speaker 1: lying there, defenseless, mom and dad have gone home, no
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Speaker 1: one there to care for them except for the staff
2:26
Speaker 1: in the nick U. Did an angel of pain stalk
2:32
Speaker 1: the halls preying on defenseless infants?
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Speaker 2: Listen?
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Speaker 5: Henriiko County Police Detective Megan Lynch responds to Henriiko Doctor's
2:42
Speaker 5: Hospital in reference to a five month old male in
2:44
Speaker 5: the nickqu found to have a fractured left femur. When
2:47
Speaker 5: the child is examined further, it is determined he also
2:50
Speaker 5: has a fracture.
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Speaker 3: Of the right tibia and multiple rib fractures.
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Speaker 5: The detective has told the injuries are similar to injuries
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Speaker 5: suffered by four males in the Nicku in the summer
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Speaker 5: of the previous year.
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Speaker 2: Oh my Stars, there.
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Speaker 1: Were other infants that had mysterious broken and fractured bones before,
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Speaker 1: and nobody did anything joining me, the father Dominic Hackey
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Speaker 1: is with us.
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Speaker 2: Mister Hackey, thank you for being with.
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Speaker 6: Us, Thanks for having me.
3:21
Speaker 1: When you first of all, tell me how did you
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Speaker 1: learn about the injuries?
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Speaker 7: It was seemingly normal Sunday, Me and my wife walked
3:31
Speaker 7: into the nick you expecting from my wife to be
3:35
Speaker 7: able to do skin to skin with our son for
3:37
Speaker 7: the second time, and that's when we were told that
3:42
Speaker 7: a nurse had observed discoloration in.
3:45
Speaker 6: His left leg.
3:46
Speaker 7: He wasn't moving it quite as much as the right one,
3:49
Speaker 7: so they had gotten an X ray and determined that
3:52
Speaker 7: he had a tibia fracture.
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Speaker 1: Mister Hackey, when you learned almost Stars, I'm looking at
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Speaker 1: the video you gave us control room. Can I see
4:02
Speaker 1: that video again? This looks just like my John, David
4:06
Speaker 1: and Lucy when they were in Niki. They had all
4:11
Speaker 1: these cords, all these going in some of them the
4:17
Speaker 1: tubes go in the nose and come out the foot.
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Speaker 1: They are completely helpless, Dominique, When you learned your baby boy,
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Speaker 1: your infant, your PREMI had a fracture of the leg
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Speaker 1: and that one of the legs wasn't moving, did you
4:40
Speaker 1: think someone had done that to your baby or that
4:43
Speaker 1: somehow this happened during childbirth.
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Speaker 7: I knew it didn't happen during childbirth. My wife had
4:49
Speaker 7: an emergency c section like yourself. I watched every minute
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Speaker 7: of that. I watched how he was pulled out. I
4:55
Speaker 7: watched everything after that. He wasn't pulled out by its legs.
5:01
Speaker 7: Nothing that in childbirth would have caused this. But it
5:05
Speaker 7: did take a minute for us to process what was happening.
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Speaker 7: Our other son, Micah, was very, very sick. We had told,
5:13
Speaker 7: we were being told that we were going to lose
5:15
Speaker 7: him twice at that point, so we were just overwhelmed
5:20
Speaker 7: with emotions. We had talked to the doctor on staff
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Speaker 7: that day. We weren't really given any answers on to
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Speaker 7: how this happened. And honestly, after we were told what
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Speaker 7: we were told and spoke to the doctors on staff,
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Speaker 7: I told my wife we need to leave because I
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Speaker 7: needed to take time outside of that hospital to process
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Speaker 7: what was happening. And I had already at that time
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Speaker 7: reached out to my mom, who was then, you know,
5:44
Speaker 7: texting me a million times back to back. This isn't right.
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Speaker 7: You need to call Child Protective Services. This shouldn't be happening.
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Speaker 7: I don't feel safe with my grandson in there, so
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Speaker 7: I needed to get out of the hospital, call her
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Speaker 7: and kind of get get my feet to where we
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Speaker 7: needed to go next. So it was a lot in
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Speaker 7: that moment to process.
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Speaker 1: Mister Hackey, you stated they had already told you what twice.
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Speaker 7: That our son, Micah was gonna pass away just due
6:14
Speaker 7: to the complications with my wife's pregnancy. He had low
6:18
Speaker 7: fluid at sixteen weeks, which caused him to have a
6:21
Speaker 7: lot of respiratory distress. So at that time, Micah was
6:24
Speaker 7: on a ventilator, an oscillator, hooked up to so many
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Speaker 7: different machines. But Noah was our strong baby. He was
6:32
Speaker 7: perfect from the moment that he came out. He needed
6:36
Speaker 7: very little respiratory help.
6:39
Speaker 6: So we had hope.
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Speaker 7: He was our hope, i should say, because he came
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Speaker 7: out so strong and nothing wrong with him, and you know,
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Speaker 7: we just wanted the same for our other son as well.
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Speaker 7: So we were very heartbroken to learn that our healthy
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Speaker 7: baby now is not healthy and nobody can tell us why.
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Speaker 1: And when you talk to the doctor, mister Hackey, the doctor,
7:05
Speaker 1: did he he she avoid the fracture or did they
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Speaker 1: try to say, hey, maybe it was this, maybe it
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Speaker 1: was that. We don't know what happened, or do they
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Speaker 1: just not talk about it.
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Speaker 7: They initially told us that it could have been done
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Speaker 7: from an injection that was given, maybe too too rough
7:20
Speaker 7: or too hard. So they were going to implement some
7:24
Speaker 7: trainings so that the nurses could be able to give
7:28
Speaker 7: injections correctly. And that's kind of the only explanation that
7:32
Speaker 7: was given. And I want to make it perfectly clear.
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Speaker 7: Bone density, vitamin deficiency, brittle bone syndrome was never ever
7:40
Speaker 7: brought up in our case. It was never questioned, it
7:45
Speaker 7: was never it was never a factor for us. So
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Speaker 7: that it's without without a doubt that somebody at this
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Speaker 7: hospital did it. Because as soon as we were told
7:57
Speaker 7: that there was a fracture, I had declined to hold
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Speaker 7: him because I didn't want to be blamed for that.
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Speaker 7: The first time I'm holding my son, you're telling me
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Speaker 7: that he has a fracture. The day before we were
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Speaker 7: at the hospital. My wife was not allowed to hold
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Speaker 7: him the day that we both come. Now that he
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Speaker 7: has a fracture and we're aware of it, now we're
8:16
Speaker 7: allowed to hold him.
8:17
Speaker 6: It didn't seem right.
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Speaker 1: To me, mister Hackey. They told me the same thing
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Speaker 1: about Lucy, my baby girl, when I was still carrying her.
8:28
Speaker 1: When doctor told me I had to do selective termination,
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Speaker 1: you know how crazy I went. Other doctors came running
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Speaker 1: into the room. I was yelling so much.
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Speaker 2: I was not going to selectively abort Lucy.
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Speaker 1: Then they were born and they told me that Lucy
8:47
Speaker 1: may not make it. It was horrible, horrible, and what
8:51
Speaker 1: you're saying, John David, my son came out healthy. Everything
8:55
Speaker 1: was fine, except very premature. Not Lucy. Mister Hackey joining
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Speaker 1: me right now is a pre eminent physician. It's doctor
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Speaker 1: William Maroney right now, medical examiner, pathologist, author of American
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Speaker 1: Narcian and so much more, who has dedicated his life
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Speaker 1: to helping other people. And I'd like to point out
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Speaker 1: specifically for you, mister Hackey, that he is a devoted
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Speaker 1: father like yourself, Doctor Moroney. You know, I'm just a
9:34
Speaker 1: trial lawyer. Sometimes as a trial lawyer and you're questioning
9:39
Speaker 1: a physician like yourself, you really don't even know where
9:43
Speaker 1: to start. But it's my understanding that injuries that occur
9:49
Speaker 1: during delivery are typically at the joint. And when i'm again,
9:54
Speaker 1: I'm just reading the tea leaves here, But when I
9:56
Speaker 1: look at that X ray, that doesn't look like the
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Speaker 1: fracture is at the joint, does it?
10:01
Speaker 8: No? And the idea of where injuries sometimes happen are
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Speaker 8: statistically based on our past experience as hospitals record injuries.
10:13
Speaker 8: The only other dominant fracture collarbones fracture all the time
10:21
Speaker 8: because a baby has to fit through the birth canal
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Speaker 8: and the shoulders and the neck and the chest are
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Speaker 8: the widest part. Legs don't break in delivery. I've never
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Speaker 8: twenty five years, I've never heard of any kind of
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Speaker 8: broken armor leg in delivery. But collarbones or joint disclocations.
10:50
Speaker 8: The collarbones the big one, because you're trying to squeeze
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Speaker 8: this wide baby through this tiny little birth canal. So
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Speaker 8: that's the first thing you would look at and have
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Speaker 8: is where do you start your investigation? How did a
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Speaker 8: fracture happen in that bone in a collar bone. Somebody
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Speaker 8: would say, oh, well, you know what's fractured, it'll grow back,
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Speaker 8: we'll line it up everything. I'm okay, and you understand
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Speaker 8: that because you're trying to squeeze the baby. But these
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Speaker 8: other things right away, they're very highly suspicious and they
11:26
Speaker 8: need an investigation.
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Speaker 2: Crime stories with Nancy Grace. You know, I'm just wondering,
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Speaker 2: mister Hackey.
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Speaker 1: I had an emergency cesarian, just like your wife did,
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Speaker 1: and I was awake the whole time. I could see
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Speaker 1: the baby's being lifted up, and it's just like you
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Speaker 1: just said, they weren't pulled out by their legs or
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Speaker 1: by you know, in a normal birth, the head normally
12:02
Speaker 1: comes out first. They were lifted up the way I'm
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Speaker 1: demonstrating right now. And I saw John David come out first.
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Speaker 1: I saw Lucy come out second, and I was told
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Speaker 1: they're breathing, and they were looking at me and blinking
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Speaker 1: their eyes. I remembered distinctly. And when you tell me
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Speaker 1: they were not pulled out by their legs, I believe
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Speaker 1: you that's something you never forget. When your wife learned
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Speaker 1: that her baby her newborn. How much did they weigh?
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Speaker 7: Four pounds Noah was three pounds eight ounces, and like
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Speaker 7: It was two pounds eight ounces.
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Speaker 1: John David was five pounds. Lucy was two pounds, like
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Speaker 1: a kitten. For Pete's sake, When your wife found out
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Speaker 1: this four pound baby had a fractured leg, how did
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Speaker 1: your wife take it?
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Speaker 6: She I don't think she could process it at that moment.
13:01
Speaker 7: Honestly, she was dealing with Like I said, it was
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Speaker 7: an end to a long, very long pregnancy, which actually
13:09
Speaker 7: wasn't very long, but it felt long. We were going
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Speaker 7: to ultrasounds once a week, sometimes twice a week, so
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Speaker 7: she was very much out of it, which is why
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Speaker 7: she's kind of letting me speak because I remember it
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Speaker 7: so clearly. She was dealing with postpartum at that time
13:27
Speaker 7: as well, so all that she really could do was cry.
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Speaker 7: And all that I could do was tell my wife that,
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Speaker 7: you know, our boys are going to be okay.
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Speaker 6: That's all we could do.
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Speaker 1: I don't know how you guys managed to leave them there.
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Speaker 1: I mean, you couldn't take them home. They needed to
13:45
Speaker 1: be hooked up to all those machines, so you couldn't say,
13:48
Speaker 1: to hell with you, I'm taking.
13:49
Speaker 2: The children home.
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Speaker 1: You had to leave them there oh, how did you
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Speaker 1: do it? How did you leave your child there?
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Speaker 2: Knowing?
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Speaker 1: Let me think about it. I'm sure you have somebody
14:01
Speaker 1: had to take your little babies and crack it.
14:06
Speaker 7: I guess it was the hospital. Gas led us into
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Speaker 7: thinking that this was an isolated incident, that they were
14:16
Speaker 7: really working to figure out who did this. And at
14:19
Speaker 7: that point we kind of had to trust the hospital
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Speaker 7: because me and my wife, we were very blessed with
14:26
Speaker 7: the type of jobs that we have. We were able
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Speaker 7: to be at the hospital all day every day. We
14:32
Speaker 7: just couldn't be there at night because we have animals
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Speaker 7: at home and stuff at home that we have to
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Speaker 7: attend to. But I mean, we just had to trust
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Speaker 7: them and with us at that time only thinking that,
14:46
Speaker 7: you know, this was just our son. It could have
14:48
Speaker 7: been an injection that was given wrong. They're going to
14:51
Speaker 7: train people so that they get this right. It was
14:54
Speaker 7: like at that time, it felt like the hospital was
14:57
Speaker 7: doing what they were supposed to do, even though they
15:01
Speaker 7: were telling us that we may never find the person
15:04
Speaker 7: who did this, because unless somebody confesses, it's.
15:08
Speaker 6: Going to be hard to say that this person actually
15:10
Speaker 6: did it.
15:11
Speaker 4: Some of these premature babies are so sick their little
15:14
Speaker 4: organs are not developed enough to be.
15:16
Speaker 2: Functioning outside the womb.
15:18
Speaker 4: Yet, and we are basically assisting them by artificial means.
15:23
Speaker 9: So we do see death niceeu. We see a lot
15:27
Speaker 9: of children who have issues with their lungs, with their heart,
15:32
Speaker 9: with their vision. So any instance where something happens that
15:37
Speaker 9: is unexpected.
15:38
Speaker 4: We're going to watch and try and see what happened.
15:41
Speaker 1: But all of that problems with the lungs or the heart,
15:45
Speaker 1: or with the vision does occur or originate prior to birth.
15:53
Speaker 1: This kneeborn infant child, this little baby boy, was born
16:00
Speaker 1: without a fracture in his leg.
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Speaker 2: So how did that happen?
16:05
Speaker 1: To doctor William Moroney, I know that infant's bones are malleable,
16:11
Speaker 1: but to fracture or break a baby's bone, it had
16:17
Speaker 1: to hurt. It had to be horrific pain for the
16:20
Speaker 1: child to endure. And even though the bones are somewhat
16:24
Speaker 1: malleable at the time of birth, there's still bones. How
16:28
Speaker 1: much force would you have to affect in order to
16:31
Speaker 1: break or fracture a child's leg.
16:34
Speaker 8: Probably just a little bit less than like trying to
16:38
Speaker 8: break a broomstick, or more than break some pasta.
16:43
Speaker 1: Wait, wait, wait, break a broomstick with your bare hands.
16:48
Speaker 1: I can break a broomstick with my bare hands, even
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Speaker 1: I cracked it over my knee.
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Speaker 8: No, yes, what are you saying? But the other what
16:57
Speaker 8: I want to make clear is the rare condition that
17:01
Speaker 8: a baby is born with broken bones only happens when
17:06
Speaker 8: the mother is in a car accident. If these mothers
17:11
Speaker 8: do not have any history of being in recent like
17:16
Speaker 8: right before the hospital car accidents. All these bones are perfect.
17:23
Speaker 8: All these babies are born with completely healthy bodies. But
17:28
Speaker 8: we have seen broken bones in babies after they've been
17:31
Speaker 8: delivered in emergency deliveries, when the mothers had car accidents.
17:35
Speaker 1: Mister Hackey, had your wife, I already know the answer
17:38
Speaker 1: to this. Your wife had not been in any type
17:41
Speaker 1: of an accident, Hatchie.
17:43
Speaker 2: Okay, doctor Maroney.
17:44
Speaker 1: I hate to call a medical doctor of your eminence
17:49
Speaker 1: on the carpet, but that's really not what I asked you.
17:52
Speaker 1: I didn't ask you about car rex because there's no
17:55
Speaker 1: car wreck or no accident, nothing like that, No violent
17:59
Speaker 1: in on the mom prior to birth. I'm asking you
18:03
Speaker 1: the degree of force you're telling me a little less
18:08
Speaker 1: or the same amount as trying to crack a broom
18:11
Speaker 1: over your knee.
18:13
Speaker 8: The physical amount of force would equal something hitting a
18:18
Speaker 8: wall at twenty miles an hour. And the other thing
18:22
Speaker 8: I was really real.
18:23
Speaker 2: About, baby, How can you be so calm?
18:27
Speaker 1: Marony?
18:28
Speaker 2: How many children do you have? For Pete's sake, don't.
18:31
Speaker 1: You remember when they were born someone using that amount
18:34
Speaker 1: of force like cracking a broomstick to break fracture this
18:38
Speaker 1: baby's leg.
18:39
Speaker 8: And I don't want to make pictures in people's minds
18:43
Speaker 8: that would make them even more disgusted, but broken ribs
18:47
Speaker 8: are very difficult. You either crush a baby's chest or
18:53
Speaker 8: you swing the baby like a baseball bat and hit
18:57
Speaker 8: a wall. Those are how you break ribs. I've done
19:02
Speaker 8: the depositions for child abuse in local counties. That's a
19:07
Speaker 8: tremendous amount of force. So broken bones in the chest,
19:12
Speaker 8: broken legs, this is serious.
19:14
Speaker 1: Dominic hackey. I know you're hearing dtr Moroney speaking. When
19:18
Speaker 1: you hear him describe how much force it would require
19:24
Speaker 1: to break your kneeborn's leg to fracture it. I mean,
19:31
Speaker 1: I feel sick just hearing it. When you think about
19:35
Speaker 1: your infant and the force required like swinging the infant
19:40
Speaker 1: against a wall or breaking their leg like a broom handle.
19:46
Speaker 7: It hurts, its heartbreaking it honestly, it feels like my
19:52
Speaker 7: son was in this world for a week and I
19:54
Speaker 7: failed to protect him. And it keeps me up at night.
20:01
Speaker 7: But I won't feel my son again. I won't fail
20:04
Speaker 7: these other babies again. What they've been through and all
20:08
Speaker 7: that they had to endure.
20:11
Speaker 6: It's sick that.
20:12
Speaker 7: We were in the room with the devil and we
20:16
Speaker 7: had no idea.
20:17
Speaker 1: Guys, it all starts here.
20:21
Speaker 10: Listen, an infant in a nick euit in Rayo Doctor's
20:23
Speaker 10: hospital suffers a horrible leg injury that isn't easily explained.
20:28
Speaker 10: Babies breakbones during birth, It's not uncommon, but this is different.
20:32
Speaker 10: As the hospital begins to investigate, three other babies have
20:35
Speaker 10: unexplained fractures.
20:36
Speaker 2: Okay, let me understand something.
20:38
Speaker 1: Joining me Dave Matt Crime online dot Com investigative reporter
20:41
Speaker 1: who has intensely researched this case and conducted his own interviews.
20:46
Speaker 2: Dave mac Wait.
20:48
Speaker 1: A minute, So when this little baby, mister Hackney's baby
20:55
Speaker 1: has a fractured leg. Before that, there were already three
21:03
Speaker 1: other babies that had quote unexplained fractures.
21:07
Speaker 11: Yes, Nancy, there were four babies in this in the
21:15
Speaker 11: time around mister Hackney's child that all had unexplained fractures.
21:21
Speaker 11: One of the babies was actually hurt four days after
21:24
Speaker 11: mister Hackney's baby.
21:26
Speaker 1: Okay, I am actually without words, Dave mac I didn't
21:30
Speaker 1: understand the events chronologically, mister Hackney, did anybody tell you, Oh,
21:39
Speaker 1: by the way, we've already had multiple babies that have
21:42
Speaker 1: unexplained fractures. When they were telling you your baby somehow
21:46
Speaker 1: has a broken leg, did they think to say and oh, yeah,
21:50
Speaker 1: there were three babies before and then right after that
21:53
Speaker 1: there's another baby. Did anybody tell you that? I guess not.
21:56
Speaker 7: Nobody had told us until after we were out of
21:58
Speaker 7: the hospital. Henryko Police department told us that there were
22:02
Speaker 7: other victims that suffered similar fractors around the same time
22:06
Speaker 7: as my son, and that's when we first learned about it.
22:08
Speaker 1: The police department had to tell you that. Let me
22:10
Speaker 1: ask you a question. Okay, I'm a criminal lawyer, but
22:14
Speaker 1: I know this much about civil law. I hope you
22:17
Speaker 1: and your wife had a good lawyer. So at no
22:21
Speaker 1: point when the doctor is explaining to you your baby
22:24
Speaker 1: has a fractured leg and it took the forces. Maroney
22:27
Speaker 1: just said of cracking a broomstick to do it. They
22:30
Speaker 1: didn't say, and we've had that problem before. They hid
22:33
Speaker 1: that from you until police told you that you had
22:36
Speaker 1: no idea.
22:37
Speaker 2: There is no.
22:38
Speaker 1: Way hell would freeze over before I would have my
22:42
Speaker 1: children in a nick qu unit where other babies had
22:46
Speaker 1: had fractured bones. Oh no, but you didn't know that,
22:50
Speaker 1: did you?
22:50
Speaker 7: No idea? Nobody. None of the other families knew as well.
22:53
Speaker 7: We all thought that we were isolated incidents. And honestly,
22:58
Speaker 7: that's why a lot of us kept quiet for so long.
23:00
Speaker 7: We didn't know that there were other people out there
23:03
Speaker 7: who went through similar experiences with the hospital.
23:06
Speaker 12: Dominique and Tory Hackee start speaking out after Virginia Child
23:10
Speaker 12: Services informed them that their newborn baby, Noah, had been
23:13
Speaker 12: abused by an employee at the nick You when he
23:16
Speaker 12: suffered a fractured leg following his premature birth. Noah was
23:20
Speaker 12: one of the four babies who suffered unexplained injuries.
23:24
Speaker 1: This would not be the first time. And of course,
23:27
Speaker 1: you know, Dominie Hackey was looked at long and hard
23:32
Speaker 1: because parents of an injured or missing child are always
23:36
Speaker 1: the first suspect. Statistically. He could be the angel Gabriel
23:40
Speaker 1: that came down from heaven and sat down in front
23:42
Speaker 1: of police, he would still be the number one suspect statistically. Again,
23:49
Speaker 1: it's not the first time that a hospital employee has
23:54
Speaker 1: inflicted pain, suffering, even death on an innocent knee born.
23:59
Speaker 2: Does the name Lucy let Be ring.
24:03
Speaker 1: A bell because that's the name that echoes in my
24:05
Speaker 1: mind all the time? Listen.
24:07
Speaker 2: Registered nurse Lucy.
24:09
Speaker 13: Let Bee gets her dream job in the neo natology
24:11
Speaker 13: unit at Countess of Chester Hospital. Working many extra shifts
24:15
Speaker 13: in the small unit, let Be says she enjoys watching
24:18
Speaker 13: the infants progress and supporting their families, but patients under
24:22
Speaker 13: her care experience an unusual amount of medical emergencies and
24:26
Speaker 13: even death. After years of other doctors and nurses expressing
24:30
Speaker 13: their concerns, the hospital finally launches an investigation, finding that
24:35
Speaker 13: seven babies were injured and seven babies died under Leppi's care.
24:39
Speaker 13: Handwritten notes indicate the nurse injected air into the infant's
24:43
Speaker 13: bloodstream or gave them lethal doses of insulin minutes before
24:47
Speaker 13: consoling their grieving parents.
24:49
Speaker 1: Oh my stars, Okay, Doctor moroney, I gotta ask you
24:53
Speaker 1: what that means injecting air or insulin. But two, Doctor
24:57
Speaker 1: John DELATORI I need a shrink right now. Licensed psychologist
25:04
Speaker 1: who specializes in forensic psychology, Doctor Delatory, did you hear
25:09
Speaker 1: that last bit about Lucy let be made? She wrought
25:12
Speaker 1: in hell she would console the parents who are grieving
25:20
Speaker 1: after their kneeborn infant, just like mister Hackney's babies die,
25:27
Speaker 1: So she kills them and then she comforts the parents.
25:33
Speaker 1: That is freaky.
25:35
Speaker 14: Yeah, it's absolutely freaky, and it's extremely dangerous. And I
25:38
Speaker 14: think there are two complicating aspects to this. The first
25:42
Speaker 14: part is she wants the attention that she gets for
25:45
Speaker 14: being this grand nurse who's there to console, but in reality,
25:49
Speaker 14: she hates these children. In reality, she wants nothing more
25:53
Speaker 14: than to be than to get rid of them.
25:55
Speaker 1: That's the level of.
25:58
Speaker 15: Anger and animosity that needs to be there in order
26:01
Speaker 15: to inflict pain on a vulnerable child. This level of
26:05
Speaker 15: hate and anger and annoyance is complicating this idea that
26:09
Speaker 15: she also wants the attention of being the person that
26:12
Speaker 15: is there to quote unquote care for them, and it's
26:15
Speaker 15: the attention that she really wants. But in reality, she
26:18
Speaker 15: hates that she has to deal with these children in
26:21
Speaker 15: order to get it.
26:22
Speaker 1: We investigated and Lucia let the case. Listen to investigative
26:26
Speaker 1: reporter Alexis Tereschuk.
26:27
Speaker 16: First time it was a tragedy, but immediately the way
26:31
Speaker 16: that she reacted was a red flag. She wanted to
26:34
Speaker 16: come back to work immediately, while everybody else was devastated
26:38
Speaker 16: and crushed by this. Each time a child died, each
26:42
Speaker 16: time a baby died and she was there, she wanted
26:44
Speaker 16: to come back to work and insisted on She remember
26:47
Speaker 16: that many of them were twins or triplets, she wanted
26:49
Speaker 16: to work with the other sibling immediately, and that really
26:53
Speaker 16: raised the red legs of the doctors and the nurses
26:56
Speaker 16: really complained about her and said, this is really very.
26:59
Speaker 1: Very You think it's weird that she would console the
27:03
Speaker 1: parents after killing their kneeborn, that's not all Listen.
27:09
Speaker 10: After the death of a fifth baby on her unit,
27:12
Speaker 10: Lucy let me wants to go to the funeral, but
27:14
Speaker 10: is working at the time and unable to attend, so
27:16
Speaker 10: she sent a condolence card to the family titled your
27:19
Speaker 10: loved one will be remembered with many smiles inside. Let
27:23
Speaker 10: be wrote, there are no words to make this time
27:25
Speaker 10: any easier. She will always be a part of your
27:28
Speaker 10: lives and we will never forget her. Thinking of you
27:31
Speaker 10: today and always lots of love, Lucy. Let me then
27:35
Speaker 10: took a picture of the card and kept it as
27:37
Speaker 10: a keepsake.
27:38
Speaker 1: Okay, Dominic Hackey is joining us. His twins were in
27:43
Speaker 1: the nick queue when he and his wife learn after
27:47
Speaker 1: very difficult pregnancy and delivery and emergency c section, that astonishingly,
27:56
Speaker 1: one of their babies has a fractured legs. Out of nowhere,
28:02
Speaker 1: you're hearing about Lucy, let be who would murder the
28:07
Speaker 1: infants and then console the parents and help them plan
28:12
Speaker 1: the funeral. Did any of the nurses seem odd or
28:18
Speaker 1: act in an unusual way to you or to your wife?
28:23
Speaker 7: None of the nurses really talk to me. There were
28:26
Speaker 7: very few of them. A lot of them talked to
28:29
Speaker 7: my wife and directed a lot of care questions to
28:33
Speaker 7: my wife. It was almost as if I was incapable
28:36
Speaker 7: of making decisions for my kids and that she was
28:40
Speaker 7: the only capable one. So I didn't form a lot
28:43
Speaker 7: of relationships with a lot of the nurses.
28:48
Speaker 1: Well, they probably suspected you Frankly, mister Hackey, they probably
28:51
Speaker 1: thought you were responsible because all the nurses think they
28:55
Speaker 1: know each other and they would never do anything to her,
28:57
Speaker 1: the baby and the dad or the is typically the purp.
29:03
Speaker 1: So no wonder they gave you the cole shoulder. They
29:05
Speaker 1: probably gave you the stink.
29:07
Speaker 6: Yeah.
29:07
Speaker 7: I'm sure once they learned because I was very open
29:10
Speaker 7: with my mom reporting the incident to Child Protective Services
29:14
Speaker 7: and things like that, that they were very cautious about that.
29:25
Speaker 3: Nick You nightmare A nurse under arrest for allegedly breaking
29:28
Speaker 3: the bones of premature infants in a Virginia hospital.
29:32
Speaker 1: That's right after they let the foreign nurses come back
29:36
Speaker 1: because their own investigation went nowhere. That's on them. There
29:40
Speaker 1: were more fractures. Wow, what a coincidence. Then we learned
29:46
Speaker 1: this from surveillance video placed in the hospital room. Listen.
29:51
Speaker 10: The hospital installed surveillance cameras throughout the nick U after
29:54
Speaker 10: the unexplained injuries of the previous year. In Raiko County,
29:57
Speaker 10: police detective Megan Lynch reviews the surveillance video and reports
30:01
Speaker 10: what she sees. Aaron Strawman seen in the room with
30:04
Speaker 10: baby identified in paperwork as yh On November tenth, Straman
30:08
Speaker 10: grabs Yh by the legs and applies pressure to the legs.
30:12
Speaker 10: Strawman is seen on video placing her weight down on
30:15
Speaker 10: the legs of Yh. Strawman is then seen taking both
30:18
Speaker 10: of the baby's legs and pushing them backwards to where
30:21
Speaker 10: Yh's feet are at his head. Yh appears to be
30:25
Speaker 10: crying and in distress.
30:26
Speaker 1: Oh my stars, the baby's feet are back at his head.
30:31
Speaker 2: Mister Hackey, have you seen this video?
30:34
Speaker 6: No, I haven't seen any videos.
30:36
Speaker 1: I guarantee you when you get the right lawyer, you
30:40
Speaker 1: will so, mister Hackey, when were you told that the
30:46
Speaker 1: perpetrator was caught on video?
30:51
Speaker 7: I want to say maybe a couple of weeks ago,
30:54
Speaker 7: towards the beginning of the year. We By the time
30:58
Speaker 7: we left the hospital, there were no cameras were in
31:00
Speaker 7: there for eighty seven days, so if they ever put
31:03
Speaker 7: in cameras, we didn't know until these new stories came out.
31:09
Speaker 7: And when I learned of the three babies, that's when
31:11
Speaker 7: I learned of that there was camera footage. Didn't specifically
31:18
Speaker 7: say that they caught her on camera footage, but at
31:21
Speaker 7: that time, but learned that there was camera footage and
31:24
Speaker 7: that the police department, the Commonwealth Attorney, everybody was going
31:27
Speaker 7: to be working to review this footage around the clock.
31:31
Speaker 7: And then, of course once she was arrested, is when
31:35
Speaker 7: we learned that, you know, they had caught her on footage.
31:38
Speaker 7: They nobody told us doing what with Who's baby, just
31:44
Speaker 7: that she was being brought up on charges in connection
31:47
Speaker 7: with this, and you know, we'll just keep finding out
31:51
Speaker 7: along the way.
31:51
Speaker 2: So the hospital never told.
31:53
Speaker 1: You we've got her on video. You had to learn
31:56
Speaker 1: that from the District Attorney's office. Doctor William Moron, you
32:00
Speaker 1: heard what we have learned was on the video.
32:05
Speaker 2: What exactly does that mean? What does she do to
32:08
Speaker 2: the baby? According to the video.
32:10
Speaker 8: What it looks like is there's pressure to snap a
32:16
Speaker 8: leg by pushing it outside of what we call barriers.
32:22
Speaker 8: There's natural barriers that the muscles can use.
32:26
Speaker 1: Then there may stop. Stop stop doctor, you're talking to
32:32
Speaker 1: lay people. We don't know what are you saying? Pressure barriers?
32:37
Speaker 1: Please speak English.
32:41
Speaker 8: Here's we'll go back to. When you when you put
32:46
Speaker 8: weight on that leg to snap that bone, it's equal
32:51
Speaker 8: to a vehicle hitting a wall at twenty miles an hour.
32:55
Speaker 8: But it happens in somebody's hands.
32:58
Speaker 2: But how does she do it? What do you mean
33:01
Speaker 2: put weight?
33:02
Speaker 1: How does that happen?
33:03
Speaker 8: Well, they said in the words that were used. She
33:09
Speaker 8: pushed down that her body weight, her shoulders, her muscles,
33:16
Speaker 8: pushed on a b a bone, on legs on one instance,
33:21
Speaker 8: and then exceeding the normal range of hips and backs
33:27
Speaker 8: and legs, she twisted the legs so far back that
33:35
Speaker 8: a baby that's a flat piece of pasta, it's a noodle,
33:39
Speaker 8: suddenly becomes an elbow. That's unnatural the body. Even adults, children,
33:46
Speaker 8: they don't bend like that. When you bend something like that,
33:50
Speaker 8: something breaks. They're very lucky. We don't know the results,
33:55
Speaker 8: but that could have snapped somebody's spine and made somebody
34:01
Speaker 8: permanently paralyzed for life. That's the amount of pressure twenty
34:06
Speaker 8: miles an hour, a car hitting a fence twenty miles
34:09
Speaker 8: an hour, a car hitting a brick wall. That's the
34:12
Speaker 8: amount of force and weight from what was done to
34:18
Speaker 8: those babies. Bone two.
34:20
Speaker 1: Mary Hutchinson joining us twenty eight years in Elle law enforcement,
34:27
Speaker 1: now owner chief investigator for Barry and Associates Investigative Services. Mary,
34:33
Speaker 1: thank you for being with us, what the he double
34:37
Speaker 1: l is wrong with this hospital?
34:40
Speaker 2: Their investigation yielded nothing.
34:44
Speaker 1: And then as soon as the four nurses did have
34:46
Speaker 1: put on paid leave. I might add, this woman charged
34:51
Speaker 1: with breaking the bones a little nikki infants that weigh
34:55
Speaker 1: four pounds.
34:57
Speaker 2: She is on paid leave. Are you kidding me? But
35:02
Speaker 2: their investigation yield did nothing.
35:04
Speaker 1: Are you surprised that the hospital found out nothing while
35:08
Speaker 1: investigating itself.
35:10
Speaker 17: No, that's pretty much common practice. They're going to do
35:12
Speaker 17: everything they can to shield their own liability. And I
35:15
Speaker 17: mean that's a travesty in itself. That's another story to
35:18
Speaker 17: be told. But there's no way that you could ever
35:23
Speaker 17: ever convince me that there wasn't already surveillance in place
35:29
Speaker 17: in that nick You in some shape, form or fashion
35:31
Speaker 17: not to mention that there are other cameras all throughout
35:35
Speaker 17: that hospital, like an adjacent hallways, et cetera, et cetera,
35:39
Speaker 17: that they could track each one of these individual nurses
35:42
Speaker 17: and find out exactly a timeline of who was around
35:45
Speaker 17: the child and when they were around the child.
35:47
Speaker 1: You know what, You're absolutely right they had all that
35:50
Speaker 1: in the records. Who was working the day before the
35:54
Speaker 1: injury manifested who was working in the day of the injury.
35:59
Speaker 1: That shouldn't be so difficult to uncover, Yet they didn't.
36:04
Speaker 1: To Greg Morris joining me, high profile lawyer and partner
36:09
Speaker 1: at the law firm of King and Morse, author of
36:14
Speaker 1: the untested on Amazon, Greg Morrise, I'm sorry to report
36:20
Speaker 1: I'm not surprised at all. You heard Dominic Hacke, the dad,
36:24
Speaker 1: saying the doctor never even explained to us really exactly
36:28
Speaker 1: what had happened, didn't mention that employee may have done this.
36:34
Speaker 1: Nobody told me that other infants before my baby Noah
36:38
Speaker 1: was attacked, had been attacked. I'm not surprised at all.
36:42
Speaker 1: The hospital didn't tell him any of that and didn't
36:45
Speaker 1: tell him, Hey, we have surveillance video.
36:48
Speaker 2: I want you to know we know who did it.
36:50
Speaker 2: Never breathe a word, Greg.
36:53
Speaker 18: Well, that's the bigger or an issue here also is
36:56
Speaker 18: the hospital's cover up. And what's particularly troubling to me
37:00
Speaker 18: is that they questioned these parents. As you pointed out,
37:04
Speaker 18: they're the first suspects. There is no world where the.
37:07
Speaker 19: Hospital doesn't know this is going on with all these babies,
37:10
Speaker 19: and they're, like your previous experts said, they're trying to
37:14
Speaker 19: shield their liability. And that's really, that's really, you know,
37:19
Speaker 19: a comment on our healthcare. We value profits over care,
37:24
Speaker 19: and this is what you get. You talked about your
37:27
Speaker 19: own children, Nancy.
37:28
Speaker 20: Imagine a doctor says to you, well, when we give needles,
37:31
Speaker 20: sometimes bones break. There's no world where anybody believes that
37:35
Speaker 20: there's no world where that's not investigated. But if the
37:38
Speaker 20: people investigating are sweeping it under the rug, then what
37:41
Speaker 20: do you do? And it's heartbreaking for these families what
37:44
Speaker 20: they've had to endure and then to be a suspect
37:47
Speaker 20: essentially by the hospital administrator so they could hide their
37:50
Speaker 20: own malfeasance and their own negligence and turning a blind
37:53
Speaker 20: eye to these things.
37:55
Speaker 21: Seven potential abuse cases are now under scrutiny, and investigators
37:58
Speaker 21: say there could be more. Police investigators are scouring hundreds
38:02
Speaker 21: of hours of surveillance footage to determine what happened. Reports
38:06
Speaker 21: say at least three of the affected families were in
38:09
Speaker 21: court for Strapman's appearance. Only one family has spoken publicly
38:13
Speaker 21: so far, and that father says another couple told him
38:17
Speaker 21: their child suffered twelve fractures. Strautman has been formally charged
38:21
Speaker 21: in just one baby's case. As the investigation continues, Straupman's
38:26
Speaker 21: public defender says she is not entered a plea as
38:28
Speaker 21: yet and is being held without bail. Her next court
38:31
Speaker 21: appearance is scheduled for March twenty fourth.
38:34
Speaker 1: Mister Hackey, is that true another baby had twelve fractures?
38:41
Speaker 6: I hate to say it, but yes.
38:43
Speaker 1: Have you talked to any of the other parents.
38:45
Speaker 7: Yes, I'm currently in contact with five of the other families,
38:49
Speaker 7: so six families, including myself. It's worked wonders for myself
38:54
Speaker 7: and the other families just to have other people who
38:57
Speaker 7: have gone through the situation, who have been gas lit
39:00
Speaker 7: by the hospital, whose birthing stories are similar to our story,
39:06
Speaker 7: and we just all feel like we were failed from
39:09
Speaker 7: the moment we stepped foot from that hospital to the
39:12
Speaker 7: moment that we left, because we had no idea that
39:15
Speaker 7: anybody had even been let go in relation to our
39:20
Speaker 7: son's cases until the news put it out there this year.
39:24
Speaker 1: Mister Hackey, Ona, thank you for speaking out. There are
39:27
Speaker 1: parents all over the country whose children suffer injuries or
39:33
Speaker 1: worse in the hospital and they are fed the line
39:39
Speaker 1: it's normal. We don't know how this happened.
39:43
Speaker 2: It's not normal, mister Hackey.
39:47
Speaker 1: Have you ever lain awake at night and thought about
39:51
Speaker 1: how lucky you are she didn't kill your baby every night?
39:57
Speaker 15: Ever?
39:57
Speaker 6: Sends.
39:57
Speaker 7: All of the details of this story were learned because,
40:01
Speaker 7: like I said, I'm just learning of the severity of
40:04
Speaker 7: the other cases. So I'm very blessed that I'm able
40:09
Speaker 7: to come home and hold my two my two little babies,
40:13
Speaker 7: kiss them, hold my wife, hug her, and we can
40:17
Speaker 7: sit down as a family and attack this monster head on,
40:22
Speaker 7: all of us together, and everybody is healthy and happy.
40:26
Speaker 7: And I'm just truly blessed that my outcome and my
40:31
Speaker 7: situation did not end in death.
40:35
Speaker 1: You know, mister Hackey, you're so much a better person
40:38
Speaker 1: than I am. You're thinking about your blessings. I would
40:44
Speaker 1: want to burn the place down with her in it.
40:49
Speaker 1: We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace signing off, Goodbye
40:56
Speaker 1: friend Bo.