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Christopher Kaphaem, 43, a former nurse, is accused of injuring several newborns in a Wisconsin hospital, accused of mistreatment.
(Dane County Sheriff's Office)
Prosecutors on Thursday accused a former nurse of abusing several infants in the intensive care unit of a Wisconsin hospital, accusing her of injuring them and breaking bones.
Christopher Kaphaem, 43, faces 19 cases of sexual violence involving nine children. All but one of the chiefs have a maximum sentence of six years in prison.
The 19th charge, intentional maltreatment causing serious bodily harm, has a maximum of 25 years behind bars.
Hospital staff documented a series of injuries to nine infants, including bruises, broken ribs, broken legs and a fractured skull.
Police began investigating reports of injuries to infants in the Intensive Care Unit of UnityPoint Health-Meriter Hospital in February, according to the criminal complaint. The hospital is in Madison, the capital of the state.
Kaphaem inflicted injuries between March 2017 and February of this year, according to the complaint.
Investigators interviewed another nurse who took care of one of the infants that Kaphaem would have injured, Madison reported WMTV-TV.
"(N) During my 32 years working at the NICU, I've never seen anything like it," said the nurse, according to the station.
"(N) During my 32 years working at the NICU, I've already seen something like this."
Kaphaem's lawyer did not immediately return a message on Thursday.
The investigators tapped Kaphaem, who was working at night in the unit, after other nurses told them he had looked after the babies.
They said that Kaphaem often closed the children's rooms door when he checked them, ignored the alarms, never asked for help and said one day that he was happy to work with babies because he not to deal with patients who answered him.
The complaint does not indicate whether the investigators have already spoken with Kaphaem or discussed a possible motive.
Meriter suspended Kaphaem on February 8, and regulators suspended his license on March 19.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services inspected the hospital in February, a few days after suspending Kaphaem and issued a scathing report stating that the facility was not doing enough to prevent injuries.
The failure was so severe that it posed an immediate threat to patient safety and the hospital's Medicare contract could be terminated if the problem is not resolved, the report says. .
The hospital issued a statement that the facility remains "devastated by what has happened".
"While we are deeply saddened by these recent events, we are determined to learn from them, to regain self-confidence and to serve our patients for generations to come," the statement said.
The statement also offered a list of improvements, including immediate removal of Kaphaem from his work, and cooperation with the authorities by installing 24-hour surveillance cameras in the ICUs.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
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